Tales of Henwa Island: The Return of the Duke
by Eduard Tubin
Summary: The new Duke has arrived. Will Azula and Karo find the peaceful life they seek or will old enemies seek to find them and destroy them?
1. Chapter 1

**Tales of Henwa Island**

**The Return of the Duke of Henwa Island**

"It takes a bus or a tram forty minutes to cross the city of Komatsu," Karo said as he bit his lip and gripped the dash of the car, "but somehow you have traveled across the whole city in under five. At least I think it took us five minutes but it is hard to tell when your life flashes in front of your eyes or maybe the heart attacks confused my sense of time."

The car had proven a useful piece of equipment and because it looked like a small Fire Nation tank, had a black shiny paint job; Azula believed she could pulp any beasts of burden and flee before the police came to the accident scene to find the wooden splinters of a once well appointed carriage. Karo hated the car: the Fire Nation had not perfected the suspension or leaf spring and it had an engine that required a crank, that coughed, backfired and seemed always on the edge of exploding. It ran on gasoline but the city had few fuel depots. The Fire Nation had turned from making armor to making automobiles but they had not retooled the factories so the automobiles still looked and drove like armored tanks. Karo rode in the car and thought the idea needed more refinement to make it a useful thing. The trams of Komatsu had a nice and elegant look, fine paintjobs and looked nostalgic and calming as they trundled up and down the streets but the car looked like something bashed out by apathetic military engineers on some kind of bender.

Azula slammed the heavy black door of the car, "I learned how do drive during the War. We never had to avoid the old ladies in the crosswalk – now let go of the dashboard and come with me!"

We have stopped?" Karo said desperately.

"The paper said this house was for rent – get out of the car and quit acting like an ass!" Azula pulled the door of the passenger side and then yanked the panicky Karo from the car. "If we don't find a place to live we'll end up living in the car!"

The house had the traditional Fire Nation red roof and looked quite ordinary. It had white stucco and a bland looking lawn kept neat with a bright green push mower. A tall palm tree around the back shed dates on the back patio. The house belonged the the Henwa Island College to provide accommodation for visiting professors but the college had no need for it and decided as colleges often did – to put the house up for rent to make money. The estate agent guided them through the house, pointing out that the house had tropical hardwood floors and three well lit bedrooms.

"We will take it," Azula said decisively, "talk to my friend Karo to fill in all the paper work."

Karo smiled politely and the young man acting as the estate agent motioned to the dining room table.

"873 College Way," the young man in his neat suite said as he handed Karo a fountain pen, "the term of the lease is six months."

"I understand," Karo accepted the pen and began to fill in the necessary information.

The estate agent leaned over Karo's shoulder as he filled out the form, "so you are Duke Karo?"

Azula wandered out the back door, "we have an alligator sunning itself under the patio at the back. Is this a pet? Does he come with the house?"

The estate agent looked at Karo, "they come up from nearby creeks."

Karo heard a snarl and a loud thump then silence.

Karo spoke out in sudden concern – not for Azula – she could survive anything but he would not wish a painful death for the gator. "Azula!"

"Do not poke a fifteen foot gator with a sharp stick," Azula spoke with her trademark calm and held up half a stick that had the end gnawed off, "we'll have to keep an eye on Mitsumi."

The estate agent took the paperwork and handed Karo the keys to the house then filed the papers in his briefcase and politely bowed, "I hope you enjoy your stay."

Azula looked around the pleasant looking interiors and studied the kitchen. Plain varnished mahogany cabinets, a gas stove and an old icebox that depended on delivery of ice to maintain its cool. She walked into the living room and noticed the lack of a couch or a coffee table.

The house had a simple floor plan – as a bungalow it had only one floor with a crawl space guarded by the stick eating alligator. As housing, it would serve their needs until they could complete the new estate of Duke Karo.

Karo decided to buy some groceries while Azula embarked on a mission to provoke the alligator.

* * *

The next day dawned sunny and warm and to Karo seemed just perfect except that he had to go with Azula to that famous flat pack furniture company based in the Northern Water Tribe – _Ichia._ The day felt just right but something about hurtling through the city of Komatsu on cobbled streets with Azula blowing past all the stop signals and signs made Karo very nervous. The _Ichia_ store occupied a huge warehouse once used to make heavy tanks and armor now adorned with a blue sign with a sterile looking white paint coating the old corrugated steel walls. Azula screeched to a halt when she struck the stone abutments that prevented people in cars and carriages from making new doors. Karo grunted as his seat belt took hold.

"Do you think we should buy furniture from a chain store in an old military factory that still has corrugated steel siding?" Karo undid his seat belt and felt his ribcage for any sign of broken ribs.

"Water Tribe quality." Azula slammed the car door as Karo climbed out of the car.

"_Ichia _offers relative cheapness compared to those furniture stores that assemble the furniture," Karo snorted as Azula began to walk to the door. Karo didn't trust the Northern Water Tribe and disliked the idea of sorting through diagrams to try and figure out how to do the tensor algebra required to make a set of shelves look like shelves.

Azula had not given the Northern Water Tribe enough credit. They had mastered the art of filling a steel box like store with cheapness. They had made certain they made furniture that would appeal to the budget conscious consumer and would not last long enough to become an expensive antique. The heavy steel double doors used a winch and an attentive staff member looking out for customers to open on a vast room with steel trusses spanning the roof. It held long aisles filled with vast array of all sorts of do it yourself furnishings.

"Let us go through the _Ichia Furniture Company Corporate Policy_," Azula said drolly as she walked past a crude plywood bin filled with brass door knockers. "We don't deliver, we don't assemble and we definitely don't print human understandable directions."

Karo looked up at a white cardboard box with the word -bed – in neat black characters and a picture of a bed in neat black lines. The box stated in no uncertain terms that a mattress was _not_ included and that _no one_ should take it as a fact that the drawing resembled the contents.

"A complete four poster bed in the Mission style; you might as well try assembling a platypus bear from the raw ingredients," Azula held back no scorn from her voice. "They do sell more modest beds."

Karo held out a list, "I made a list of the basics we need which includes one couch a few tables and wardrobes." He rustled the paper listing the things he thought it best to purchase now, "I will be in _not the right sized hex key hell_ for the next week. Anything else?"

"Have you ever wanted to take a crack at making silicon based life?" Azula walked up the aisle lined with metal racks. "We need a shopping cart – do you want the one with the gimpy wheel or the one with the sticky handle?"

"We can use that one," Karo pointed at an abandoned cart with a wrinkled flier for the store. A simple wooden platform with wheels, it did as Azula foresaw have a fouled up wheel that made it want to turn left.

"Gimpy wheel it is." Azula pushed the cart slowly ahead.

"I could swear I saw a Kyoshi Warrior," Karo whispered as he turned to Azula.

Azula dismissed this out of hand since the Kyoshi Warriors had to have makeup to look like Kyoshi Warriors and like any teen group of warriors or football team cheerleaders; once they had graduated from high school they got married and moved apart. Azula imagined some would become fat. She looked at Karo and chose her words carefully, "check your glasses! All Kyoshi Warriors end up in chain furniture stores buying cheap kitchen islands or closet organizers."

Karo didn't think his vision had declined that much and looked around, "I can see – well not a Kyoshi Warrior but a woman tailing us."

"Are you shoplifting? Will we find a _Shaker_ _Style_ desk in a box down your pants?" Azula kicked the cart when its front left wheel jammed. She didn't think Karo prone to bouts of paranoia and she looked around and up at the top of the shelves. "I see nothing but bright gas lighting and a sign advertizing recliners for a bargain."

A woman jumped down gracefully landing in front of Karo – who looked astonished – and Azula who wore the 'oh not this again' look. "You know me as Jun and I know we have had our differences but I need your help."

Azula glared at the bounty hunter, "like we have anymore of a chance in hell of putting this stuff together than you do."

Jun had an illustrious career as a bounty hunter and had once worked for Admiral Zhao to track down and kidnap Karo. She had spent time with him and disliked spending time with him and had the feeling that she could not charge enough to endure his complaining. He posed more of a danger because his thick glasses meant he walked around half blind but Jun swallowed her pride because she needed his political influence.

"Stripper pole in the shop?" Azula hissed and had to dodge a blow from Jun for that remark.

Jun recovered her dignity and looked to Karo for a more sympathetic hearing, "you have become the Duke of Henwa Island and I will pay you well if you help me with a specific import – export problem." She knew Karo had a certain immunity to her feminine charms either because he was nearly blind and locked behind thick glasses or because she had no feminine charm so she simply explained herself, "Nyla – you know my mole – has been taken by the Henwa Island customs because Nyla violates some kind of animal control regulation because she can paralyze those she strikes with her tongue. When I left the ship; the customs officials impounded her."

Karo pushed up his glasses, "what can I do? I don't have anything to do with Customs and Import. I have the title of Duke of Henwa Island but I have no say in making the laws: I own bananas."

"Do you know your father plans to kill you!" Jun tried a second approach.

Karo pushed his glasses back up his nose, "I had imagined as much." He shifted his feet unhappily, "I still can't imagine how you can help me"

* * *

Karo stared at the boxes stacked up in a pile in the living room of their newly rented house and decided the night stands might prove easiest to assemble. He picked one box, ignored the 'Open This End' and all the screws and the pieces of cheap wood wrapped in paper fell all over the floor. A single exploded diagram with numbers made a laughable attempt to explain how to put the night stand together.

"I think I need a pair of those red and blue colored glasses for watching movies in 3D," Karo looked at the sheet, "and add to that the additional problem that one or more of the pieces might have rolled off in whatever direction the floor is least level and one of us won't get a stand for the cheap lamps we bought."

Jun looked cautiously out of the window and made a less than polite request, "you could at least listen to me and try to help me!"

Azula had a box taller than her and lay it on the floor and attacked it with a knife, "_I could_ have guessed Zhao still roamed the nether regions of this world waiting to kill his one and only son and I will protect him."

"Thanks," Karo smiled as he turned the diagram upside down.

"I think this thing requires that I map out and reach into a parallel dimension," Azula held a blue duo tang of printed instructions that explained or rather attempted to explain how a wardrobe fit together.

Jun worried about Nyla who languished in a cage at the docks waiting for her six month quarantine period to expire. Jun had hoped Karo could at least help her – that she could take advantage of his decent moral character and his position to gain Nyla's freedom – she had not counted on Karo's impeccable moral character extending to respect for the odd democracy on Henwa Island.

She had come to Henwa Island on a bounty to capture an Earth Kingdom pirate and had a tip that placed him on Henwa Island. She took the opportunity to act on a tip that would lead to a tropical island. She had no trouble booking passage for her and Nyla on a freighter shipping wheat to Henwa but the Customs Inspectors took exception to Nyla.

She had sent a telegram off to Fire Lord Zuko – she thought he owed her a favor for helping him find his Uncle Iroh. He explained about the 'special autonomy' Henwa enjoyed and while he did provide a reference, the Customs officials remained unmoved. They explained the special ecological status of Henwa Island and their fear Nyla might eat rare animals or birds or harbor disease. Henwa had remained free from animal diseases like rabies and mold infections of the banana plant due to its relative isolation from the rest of the Fire Nation.

"Crap!" Karo exclaimed and pointed to the diagram, "what is a thing that looks like this?"

Azula looked at the diagram, "we don't have it – Jun? Want to head off to the hardware store and buy a tool set?"

* * *

Jun woke up to Karo's cursing and Mitsumi's chattering and decided to remind Karo of the time, "Yo! Little guy – it's seven in the morning!" Jun found Karo vastly irritating at times: he had a bad habit of whistling or humming odd tunes that seemed to go nowhere and he had bad eyesight and worse hand eye coordination. He seemed to find the concept of depth perception alien and she had seen him blunder into things.

Karo sat up and looked to Jun who had set up her sleeping bag on the living room floor, "according to you my dad has set out to kill me." Karo rummaged through a tool chest and found the appropriate screw driver.

Jun gave a moment thought, "he wants to kill me as well."

"Bye," Karo sipped tea from a frog green cup and placed it in a saucer on the floor.

"I thought you'd have more to say," Jun walked over to Karo.

Karo sat amidst a pile of parts and shrugged, "perhaps you should give thought to planning your funeral. You came under the pretense of seeking my help to free Nyla from customs impound which I don't believe – but none the less here you are." Karo began fastening the leg to the nightstand, "you say my father wants to kill you – which may hold some truth – but you come to me because you know I would protect you in spite of how I feel about you."

Jun sat against the wall of the living room and spoke quietly, "you have got it surrounded."

"And you came to Henwa because my father is a wanted criminal and would be recognized instantly," Karo began fastening a second leg to his night stand. "You must have known Nyla would face quarantine but you knew me, and that I would offer some protection – awfully cold and calculating."

"You going to cast me out?" Jun asked calmly.

"I feel used," Karo said sadly, "but I have to do the right thing even if you don't share my morals."

"Do you mind if I have tea?" Jun stood up.

"Feel free."

Azula came out of the bedroom she had picked for herself then glowered at Karo and gave a death stare to Jun, "it is seven in the morning! I slept on the floor all night and you to woke my up with your racket. Karo has the right to infuriate me but if you prove too irritating; you will end up in a tent in the back yard with that alligator."

Jun and Karo said nothing, Mitsumi chattered nervously and Azula went back to bed.

"We have little call for bounty hunters," Karo said a few moments later, "how do you feel about mowing the lawn?"

Jun gave Karo one of those 'you've got to be kidding' looks as she left to fetch the tea – that look meant he had to mow the lawn. Azula would not do it, the alligator had shown no interest in lawn care and Jun would not bust her hump for people she basically disliked.

* * *

Karo watched Azula sit on the balcony watching the alligator sunning itself. He had succeeded in putting much of the furniture together while Azula had sat cross legged and watched the alligator as she held what looked like a scaled down version of a whaling harpoon attached to an extension cord that ran from the kitchen outlet.

Karo cleared his throat, "you have sat out here all day. What do you hope to accomplish? And if I ask why you had that harpoon would I come to regret it?"

"I rigged this to keep our reptile at bay," Azula held out the harpoon and showed Karo the end of the strange looking mix of things electrical and Water Tribe. The harpoon smelled like burning electrical wiring and hummed loudly – Karo had no idea where Azula found the electrical parts or the long extension cord that came out the back. "I don't intend to kill it but I wired the tips to give a sizable jolt through the thick hide of the gator. So far I have kept him confined to the far end of the lawn."

"Why not get rid of him all together?" Karo asked.

"I need more extension cords: I can't reach the bottom of the yard." Azula hefted her new invention into the air and as the gator charged; it flew true and straight and struck the gator between the eyes. The noise and loud buzz bothered Karo and the neighbor looked over the olive colored slat board fence when he saw a blue flash of light on a perfectly clear summer afternoon.

"If you want them to go away then go down to the hardware store and get some of that gator repellant. The smell drives them nuts." The man looked about forty five, clean shaven with a mustache and had a friendly attitude that told Azula if they lived here too long all their tools would end up next door. "Or you could call the animal control people and have them trap him for you."

"This is more sporting?" Azula reeled in her electric harpoon.

"You're new here." The man began a course of smalltalk. "I'm your neighbor Hu."

"Hello," Karo said politely, "I'd walk over and shake your hand we have the alligator and he looks like he is in a rending mood."

Jun came out to complain. She had nothing to do without Nyla or bar brawling, and didn't enjoy spending time with Karo the world's most charismatic man and Azula who had a large number of mental abberations. "I have nothing to do."

Azula handed Jun the electric harpoon, "Aim for the alligator and win a prize – well we have nothing to offer except the lamp Karo broke."

Karo leaned out over the railing of the patio, "I didn't break it – it came from the store busted. We can get our money back." Karo instinctively cringed as the gator lunged and Azula sent out the harpoon with a ferocity she seldom summoned anymore.

The harpoon landed with the two copper probes in the ground and made a loud buzzing noise followed by smoking and a shower of white sparks flowed upward. The alligator disliked the feeling of high voltage flowing under its feet and belly. It hissed and ran along the fence hoping to find a means of escape and ran under a tropical flowering bush with red flowers. It hissed in pain and then vanished as the harpoon sat end up and sizzled, then expired by catching fire.

"Now what?" Jun noticed worms had come out of the ground.

"Someone has to go into the kitchen and unplug that thing," Karo said with the infinite calm of a funeral home director, "my vote says Azula."

Azula pushed Karo toward the kitchen, "I vote Karo – if he dies I get all his wealth."

"What wealth?" Karo found the extension cord plugged in the wall and smoking as it poured electricity freely into the lawn. "Any advice?"

"Don't ground yourself!" Azula yelled out some common sense.

Karo grabbed the wire and yanked and it came loose in a shower of deadly sparks.

A mail carrier who had found himself in the grasp of some kind of dystonia stood up and brushed off his Fire Nation red postal uniform and as he came around the back of the house to the sound of voices decided to ask what had happened, "I went to the front door and got no answer but I heard voices in the back and so as I opened the gate to the back I felt tingly and fell over. Do you know anything about this?"

Azula kicked the extension cord out of the way.

Karo walked out, "next time...mmmh?"

"We had a sudden electron surplus," Azula explained with one of her lies that counted on the mail carrier's lack of knowledge. She held her hand over Karo's mouth. "It will happen but seldom proves fatal. Now what can we do for you?"

"Fire Lord Zuko sent a Miss Jun a telegram," The mail carrier held out a yellow telegraph then reminded Azula to fork over a tip. Azula dug into Karo's vest and held out two gold coins while Karo struggled. The mailman tipped his red beret as a polite greeting and left shaking his head.

Jun grabbed the piece of yellow paper, "I wonder if Fire Lord _Sir Pouts A Lot_ knows how much I did for him. You should let go of the little guy – he's turning blue."

"You gave the mail guy two of _my gold _as a tip!" Karo griped loudly, "two gold!"

"Guys." Jun held out the telegram. "We have a job. Henwa Island has put a bounty out on Admiral Zhao's head and will release Nyla to my care if we apprehend him."

Karo and Azula looked at Jun, "We!"

"Not to put too fine a point on it, we never had a _we_!" Azula began rolling up the extension cord, "you kidnapped Karo and dragged him off to face his dad. You nearly killed Karo, did a nice number screwing me over and Zhao still got away."

Jun turned to Karo, "and how do you feel about this?"

"Nature abhors a hero," Karo began quietly in a studied and academic sort of way. "My father has threatened to kill me and has every intent of making me an ex person. I see no real reason to make myself available so he can squash me like a red ant at a picnic. I have no debt to you and the Fire Lord knows I am cowardly and clumsy so he has no reason to ask me."

"My brother doesn't trust me," Azula said loudly as she picked up her electric harpoon. "He trusts me about as far as he could comfortably excrete concrete cinder-blocks."

Jun tapped the wooden railing of the patio, "a coward and a freaking fire bending princess the Fire Lord doesn't trust?"

"Yep!" Karo raised his fist enthusiastically.

"Why do you want to have us come along?" Azula raised her eyebrows as she dropped the harpoon on the ground. "I sense ulterior motives. Could it be that you fear Admiral Zhao and his ability to return from the dead?"

* * *

"In a galaxy..." Azula yawned as she reached for the tea. "Would you take the opportunity to face your father if you had the chance?"

Karo sat at he table with a copy of the local newspaper, "all that remains for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing – that gives me an out."

"You're not evil; believe me I would know."

Karo shuffled the paper, "I lack confidence and I have a knack for hiding. Karo folded the paper and placed it on the badly assembled bleach pine table, "and yet what do I do if my father comes to kill me? I roll over and die? I can't fight on his level - I lack his anger at the world."

"I suck at counseling..." Azula looked around the cramped kitchen and into the living room. "Jun is no where to be seen – your doing?"

"She went to try to collect her bounty." Karo answered, "she woke up this morning at eight or so and after washing up, she left with her backpack and told me that it was _real_ – whatever that means."

Bang!

"Hold on!" Karo shouted. "Give me a second, please?"

Bang!

Azula reached the door first. The house had a sturdy olive green painted hardwood door that fell into the house and made a loud bang as it fell off the hinges and onto the hardwood floor. Jun stood with a piece of paper in her balled right fist.

"We have to pay for that!" Karo explained as he pointed at the door and began to sum the amount of money he'd have to sacrifice from his damage deposit.

"I thought you left." Azula said. "You had a job to hunt down Admiral Zhao."

"Someone stole Nyla!" Jun closed in on Karo.

"How does that explain why you kick down the door?" Azula continued to exert her customary calm in the face of anger.

"Hold it a second!" Karo stood on the fallen end of the door, "insane woman kicks down door like a mad ostrich horse!"

"Your father took her!" Jun began to choke Karo.

"How -ack – do I figure in all of this?" Karo begged.

Azula pushed Jun and Karo apart, "wait! we had nothing to do with this. Don't you think it a bit odd that Zhao knew you were ready to free Nyla."

"This traitor told his father where he could find Nyla and Admiral Zhao has kidnapped her!" Jun grabbed Karo by his collar and he looked down at her with his pleading green eyes. He had no idea what to think – he had hoped his father had fallen off the surface of the planet but he had returned and he felt ready to give up.

"Let go of him or I will kill you!" Azula commanded and she looked fierce. She had a fierce look on her eyes and her motions indicated she had quit playing with electricity and meant to use the real thing.

"Why protect him?" Jun slackened his grip.

"He didn't do anything you accuse him of," Azula yelled and made certain she aimed a menacing fire bending gesture between Jun's eyes, "you try to hurt him and I will crush you like a bug. You know I can do it!"

Karo felt himself flop on the ground and rubbed his sore neck, "I have my father to deal with?"

"Back away!" Azula pointed to Jun.

"People!" Karo clenched his fists, "we have bigger fish – or gators or mailmen to fry!"

Jun backed away, "beating him up would hardly accomplish much."

"We have no food," Azula peered out the window, "and I see no sign of your father."

"We can't go out!" Karo had spent the better part of the day avoiding appearing in front of the windows of the house for fear of having an arrow shot at his head.

Azula leaned back, "he won't come into town unless he's a moron."

"He is a moron," Jun stood in the doorway, "he wants revenge and he wants his pound of flesh. I can tell you he's going to come after all of us."

"Formosa Fire Nation Cuisine – Free Delivery in the Komatsu Area – Jubilee 5555." Azula read off a pamphlet that came in the mail. "We don't have a telephone – sad."

"What?" Jun sounded incredulous, "you want to order in food!"

"I see no reason to panic." Azula patted Karo on the back, "you have forgotten this is an island and he is_ known _here. This is a small island and he has few places to hide and he has to hide or risk arrest."

Karo was not convinced, "he may have a small cadre of people to help him. My return may have irritated some of the wrong kind of the people." Karo sounded sad as he put his arm around Azula, "Henwa doesn't really want to have a Duke."

"I have spent too much time in this dump!" Jun complained bitterly as she paced the floor, "some customs official doesn't like bounty hunters and because Henwa Island has a _special ecosystem_, I lose my ability to make a living." Jun made air quotes around the words 'special ecosystem'.

"Why didn't I think of this!" Karo hit his head with his hand, "Zhao has one place to hide. The old estates have dozens of old buildings – the old mansion might have seen better days but it used to grow more than bananas. No one has lived there for years, the forest has overgrown much of the ranch."

Jun threw up her arms and spoke sarcastically, "wonderful! lovely! How big is that place!"

"The title said 38,989 acres," Karo raised his finger to silence Jun, "but, but he could hide. We have a hunch which is better than nothing."

"I hate to say this, but that is two hundred square kilometers." Azula added carefully.

"He has Nyla which changes things," Karo scratched his head and wandered to a closet and produced a large folding map and spread it on the floor. He spoke with grand gesticulating gestures "The estate grew bananas but had work animals, a blacksmith, a dairy barn and all sorts of old farm buildings including a winery."

Jun snorted, "yahoo, a winery!"

"Yes!" Karo said indignantly, "the estate used to have vineyards. The winery has a bunch of rooms carved beneath the main building with tunnels for aging wine, brandy – that sort of thing."

Azula looked at the map and studied the details of the winery, "we know where he is, and he must have expected this."

* * *

The winery was a chalet type stone building with a shallow sloping roof. The gray stone building had massive wooden lintels that gave the building a massive look. A large rounded wooden door with a solid lock greeted the trio. The sun shone through a wide window but the murky interior revealed nothing about the insides but more murk.

Jun walked along the broad wooden patio, shaded her eyes and peered in the window, "I thought this was a winery."

Karo shook the lock, "that is because this is the retail liquor outlet, not the winery per se."

Azula broke the window next to the door and the tall piece of glass fell as daggers.

"I have _keys_ to these buildings!" Karo scowled.

"You said it was a liquor store," Azula kicked out the remaining glass, "isn't it traditional to break in and roll the joint?"

"We have a crazed military failure who came back from the dead and -" Jun entered the store and looked around carefully as she held her hand out to keep the others back. It would do her no good to have the klutzy Karo or the shoot from the hip Azula trip a trap of some kind. She saw nothing but the dingy, dusty inside of what at one time must have been a very nice wine store. The glass tips jar still stood on the heavy wooden counter next to a brass till covered in dust. "you guys - don't do anything stupid."

Karo picked up the jar of coins and dropped them as he spoke, "what do you mean stupid?"

Azula smacked him in the shoulder and hissed in a low hoarse whisper, "you can't resist money – can you."

"It does my heart some good to know that at one time our family earned an honorable living," Karo picked up the coins and held them out delicately, "a gold coin from the reign of Fire Lord Azulon – about the right timing. I don't think my father wanted to live the life of a vintner."

Jun creaked slowly across the floor and made her way past a wooden rack long emptied of wine bottles. She picked up a green champagne bottle that had slid under the rack and examined it carefully. It still held the contents carefully capped by a cork and a wire cage. She whispered to Karo, "I would say catch but with you that is not a certainty – what do you make of this?"

Karo walked to Jun followed by Azula, "a forgotten bottle of champagne? I guess the place was abandoned quickly – that doesn't look like a cheap bottle which most people wouldn't abandon. I don't see any any vineyards here but the banana plantation remains. I don't remember all that much from my youth and I don't remember anything about this place."

"Useful," Jun placed the bottle on the wooden rack.

"It makes sense if Lord Azulon wanted to feed troops," Karo added, "the Fire Nation worked as a command economy and the army wanted food to feed troops not fancy wines. My father was an ideologue and would have followed any edicts sent out by the Fire Lord in spite of their stupidity. This winery represented an investment in time, skill and money and probably made money. I return and I have to make a business of this estate because I need to make a living. I hate central planning in the economy."

Azula looked at the bottle of champagne, "you may be a blow hard but your theory makes sense. They made this bottle of champagne forty years ago."

Who cares?" Jun sniffed as she brushed the heavy dust off the various surfaces, "get Nyla back and we talk about wine."

"Underneath this place is a wine cellar I think," Azula had glanced at the maps of the estate and memorized the layout. She tapped the floor carefully and looked for a trapdoor that one of the old vintners would have used to raise bottles of finished wine. She had seen a detail in the old plans that caught her attention – a large version of a dumb waiter made of hard tropical woods.

Jun hated both Azula and Karo. She had to work her way up from the hard neighborhoods of Ba Sing Se and she fought her way to become a bounty hunter of repute. She had earned enough to finally purchase a shyr shu – and now she had lost Nyla. She saw Karo as a weak and incompetent idiot and Azula as a strong fire bender spoiled by her family.

Karo tapped the wall carefully, "why is this wood?"

"What do you mean!" Jun growled.

Karo had an eye for detail in architecture and wondered why a room made of glass and stone with a wooden roof would have a wooden wall. He had no idea why but it bothered him.

Azula expected a winery would not hold any secrets but the drawings she saw had no scale. She began to inspect the walls and the doors. She found out she had the right idea: the doors merely required a push and then the counterweights slid them aside revealing a large platform of heavy timber designed to take wine up from the cellars.

Karo held out his hand to provide a dim orange light as a flame rose from his hand. Azula took some pride in that Karo could control the gentlest of fire bending arts. The room the light illuminated a shaft carved from granite that formed a domed roof over their heads and nothing below.

"What now?" Jun asked in a whisper.

Azula pulled the heavy wooden doors closed and wondered if the mechanism needed someone to man it. She had a hunch but she did not voice it. A loud click sounded and the platform began to slowly move.

The shaft of rock dug into the ground seemed to go on forever. The lift slowly descended past the carved rock and Karo wondered if his ears would pop – they didn't.

With an abrupt thump the platform stopped and as Karo grew the light in his hand and as Jun grew more paranoid they saw a huge granite cavern filled with oak barrels. Karo's heart jumped for joy as he saw the wooden barrels lined up like soldiers in rows along the caves of the winery. It felt cold but Karo felt warm as he imagined the liquid wealth that might fill the old casks.

"Crap," Karo uttered, "Azula? We are rich."

"Shh!" Azula held onto his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Jun whispered back as she checked the dusty ground in front of the elevator.

"Wine never decreases in value," Karo walked up to the first huge oak casket and found it full or nearly full. "Wine lovers would pay for a vintage – a date – like the gold coin I took from the jar. A gold used to be worth a gold but this coin is rare and worth twice or three times that. "Karo held the coin out. "Imagine our wine!"

A flaming arrow struck the wall an inch over Karo's head. It made a solid and satisfying thud in an oak wine barrel. Azula dragged Karo to the ground and did her best to make a tactical assessment of the situation.

The cave suddenly grew bright as a half dozen skilled fire benders revealed themselves and their hiding places in the crevices of the cave.

"We are all gonna die!," Azula said for no reason anyone could fathom. She grabbed Karo and ducked behind the relative safety of a rack of wine barrels.

Jun stood out in the open as Admiral Zhao slowly closed in.

"Why are we hiding?" Karo looked out from behind a wine barrel just to have a flaming arrow fly past his left ear and impale itself in the wall.

"We have a few current problems: Zhao wants us dead and he has friends." Azula pulled Karo back, "the death dealing maniac is our foremost problem."

Jun did a scissors kick and knocked Zhao to the ground and flipped in mid air then landed behind the wine barrel when Azula and Karo had taken refuge. "I think I made him angry," she said to both of them as the top of the wine barrel exploded in flame.

"You must be so proud," Azula peeked out to see Zhao's position which as it turned out was directly in front of her. He sent a massive fire blast and three wine barrels exploded. Ethanol did burn as many Earth Kingdom moonshiners discovered when their still exploded but Azula had not really gained a true appreciation of the magnitude of the blast until the moment she met Karo flying in mid air. She tumbled as the gray rock blurred into a broiling nest of flames. Azula grabbed Karo and they both tumbled across the rock floor of the cave, came to a wobbly stop and slowly stood up.

Click!

Three men with crossbows surrounded the dazed duo and made every attempt to look intimidating. Karo gulped as a very vibrant image of a metal crossbow bolt piercing his skull crossed his mind. Zhao did not look like he felt like a father and son talk as he came forward and patted the fires on his clothing.

Karo had aches and a good many pains and had no presence of mind, "I am crossing you off my Father's Day gift list."

"I will remind you to show respect – boy!" Zhao never seemed to wear a pleasant expression and he did not decide to break that pleasant rule and scowled.

Azula tapped the point of a crossbow bolt, "may I remind you that you are as badly screwed as us? This cave contains many thousands upon thousands of liters of flammable liquid – flambe relies on the fact booze burns. As I flew through the air I noticed you had lit the huge wooden casks on fire so this fact eluded you. If you don't leave now, you won't have to ever leave because you will be stationed here for eternity."

Azula grabbed Karo as she realized the delicate calculation meant that whether she exploded or had a bolt sent through her head would not matter in a few moments. She punched one of the guards and dragged Karo as the other two guards shot at her. Her words and the fire which had turned orange and blue and grown very rapidly clouded their aim as they realized Azula might be quite correct in her assessment and their instinct for self preservation kicked in.

Karo screamed as he took a crossbow bolt in his upper left arm. He felt the impact which jarred him with immense force and he felt the oddest sensation as the bolt broke his collar bone and his arm went limp. Azula lifted him up over her head as she felt a strange wind that rushed through the cave.

The residents of Komatsu thought for a moment that they had cause to worry about an earthquake and it came as somewhat of a relief that the old winery had exploded and taken out three buildings. A tram of bewildered passengers and one startled driver watched a mushroom cloud rise from the hills. The Fire Brigade found Azula and Karo huddled up against a Jacaranda Tree with Karo looking in a very sorry state as he slipped into shock. The ambulance rushed both of them off to the hospital.

* * *

"You were lucky that we have the same blood type," Azula sat on an old chair next to Karo's hospital bed. She dropped a bundle of science fiction paperbacks and graphics novel on the bed in a paper bag. "You have a pin in your shoulder and they had to operate to fix your left arm. It is January 6th."

Karo felt sore, "I lost two days."

"The good news," Azula added, "we don't have to dig a foundation since we have a hole the size of a football pitch where the winery once stood. The bad news is that the Fire Investigators found no trace of human remains at the scene – Zhao and his men probably escaped."

"And Jun?" Karo said with more than a hint of sadness.

"She turned up and left you a 'get well' basket of flowers yesterday," Azula moved a glass vase with deep red tulips Jun had sent for Karo across the small table so Karo could see it. "Zhao had hidden Nyla in a barn near the winery slash hole and Jun found her and has gone on a quest to capture Zhao and his hoardette."

"How's Mitsumi?" Karo asked.

"He must miss you because he has taken to grooming my hair when I go to sleep," Azula snickered.

"So I will live?"

"You will live," Azula assuaged Karo's nerves, "the doctors say you will regain most of the motion in your left arm. I have spent the last two days eating in the hospital cafeteria and eating vending machine fixings. Your mother has booked passage to visit you and so has Katara."

"Room 306," a doctor walked in the room and bowed gently as he spoke, "I am Doctor Leng – your surgeon - I took out the crossbow bolt and did some work rebuilding your shoulder. You have hemophilia which made the operation a bit difficult but lucky for you I am quite a talented doctor. You need to wear a medic alert necklace so the doctors know how to deal with your condition if you ever find yourself in a similar situation. Lucky for us, your girlfriend told us about your illness. I have a few questions."

"My dad had one of his guards shoot me for being a disappointment as a man," Karo answered.

The doctor seemed unmoved by that news, "your girlfriend told us that story – your father was Admiral Zhao – the former duke of Henwa Island and he has set out to murder you for being a military failure. He sounds like a wonderful man." He did not hide his sarcasm as he pressed his stethoscope into Karo's chest. "Are you in pain?"

"I can feel a dull ache," Karo answered, "nothing major."

The doctor gently undid Karo's bandages, "No bleeding which is good."

"When can I go home?"

"Your hemophilia complicates matters and I recommend that you stay here for a week." The doctor picked up a chart on a clipboard and used a pencil attached to it to write a few quick notes. "We gave you medication to help your blood clot – a herbal supplement – but if you go home too soon you might bleed seriously if something went wrong."

Karo nodded as the doctor put on clean bandages.


	2. Chapter 2

**Tales of Henwa Island**

**The Return of the Duke of Henwa Island II**

**The Book of the Family Zhao**

"I visited the family hole," Azula pulled on the bars of Karo's hospital room window, "what happened to the old man in the other bed with the bad appendix I met yesterday?"

"I heard they operated on him and he's in the recovery ward," Karo said sadly, "I take an arrow and they sentence me to a week. I have been in this despairing dungeon pit for five days and I have found out two crucial facts: first – the vending machines have none of my favorite sodas or candy and second - the gift shop charges twice as much as the grocery store for junk food."

"Why do they have bars on the windows?" Azula grabbed the bars.

"They don't want you jumping out of a third story window when you get the bill." Karo grunted as he sat up in his bed. "When will my mother arrive?"

Azula let go of the bars and mulled the answer to her question for a moment, "in three days – you'll be home so she can dote over you."

A nurse in the ugly teal scrubs came into the room, checked Karo's chart and rolled in a cart with lunch trays on it. She placed a lunch tray in front of Karo and then examined the chart and asked a rather strange question, "did you know you have only one testicle?"

"I named it 'lefty'." Azula delivered the line with emotionless wit but great comedic timing, "if you leave him in a field blindfolded, he will start turning to the left because he's slightly off balance."

Karo looked uncomfortable as he answered, "I had been made aware of it since I was a little boy and my mom gave me a lecture on the nasty sorts of things that happen when you misplace things. I guess losing my testicle is somewhat more serious than losing my keys - but there you go."

Azula snickered as she enjoyed the socially awkward moment she had help create.

The nurse left quickly to wheel meals to other inmates of the hospital which left Karo to complain about the food.

"Yum," Azula sneered, "how do they get corn to look like yellow milk?"

Karo dragged the fork through the fluid called corn, "much time and effort with a pressure cooker."

"We used to have that spiced ham in the navy," Azula poked a gelatinous pink cube of meat, "but we never ate it."

"Any food item you approve of?" Karo stabbed at the meat, "delicious spiced ham today – yesterday they served round slices of chicken which had no bones and they used lard to keep it shaped. How_ do you make_ a round chicken?

"You take a live chick and one of those large glass cylinders used in chemistry labs and it grows into a tube shape," Azula ate the pineapple slice on the spiced ham. "Or you take an adult chicken and push it into a tube – it will fit if you push hard enough."

"How did they remove the bones?" Karo picked at the corn.

"The chickens live on a space station in orbit and the bones atrophy in zero gravity," Azula sat next to Karo and poked at his food. "When you return home in two days we will have to send out for some real deep fried food."

* * *

Two long days later Karo entered the front door of the cottage they had rented and found himself wading into the large mess Azula had created there. "I see they fixed the door and we had a major seismic event."

Azula followed Karo quietly as he negotiated the piles of papers, clothes and other detritus that Azula had managed to spread through the house in under a week. A pressure cooker sat on the stove and the contents – a noodle dish of some sort – had adhered to the plaster of the kitchen ceiling.

Karo looked up at the ceiling of the kitchen then at the pot, "I didn't even know we had a pressure cooker."

"I bought one to make cooking faster but evidently the latch that holds down the lid is not an option," Azula said as she hastily shoved a heap of dishes into the sink which already had a heap of dishes.

Karo stared at the kitchen, "geologists have a technical term fort this – the epicenter."

Azula walked behind Karo as he toured the kitchen, "I worried so much about you I had no time for any housework but you will find your room as you left it." Azula hesitated, "including the lemur hair and you have a pet gecko – a really nice green one with blue spots."

Mitsumi jumped on Karo's shoulders and began to preen his long hair in spite of the delicate Fire Nation hair decoration that kept it in a tight queue. Mitsumi chattered and caressed Karo's face with licks. Karo felt the pain from the weight of the limber primate on his shoulder but chose not to complain as he scratched Mitsumi's head.

"My mom will flip when she sees the kitchen," Karo quietly reminded Azula, "and the repair will come out of our damage deposit."

Azula seemed to pay attention to Karo in much the same way a pet cat seemed to pay attention – utterly ignoring his concern, "you did say Katara was accompanying your mother? She will enjoy cleaning all of this up - I spend my week worrying and visiting you and the house kind of got away from me. By the way do you know I can stick fridge magnets to your shoulder?"

"Azula?"

"Yes?" Azula held a small porcelain duck fridge magnet and let it stick to Karo's shoulder.

"Why did we get porcelain fridge magnets?" Karo asked calmly, "we don't have a fridge."

"I bought them from the Hospital Giftshop and we have an icebox which is a big metal box with ice in it and so you could call them icebox magnets but - I don't have a say in these things." Azula pulled the magnet off Karo's shoulder. Karo felt no pain from this but Azula found it a trifle amusing and it had the added benefit of allowing her to post notes to Karo by sticking them to his shoulder.

Karo felt the cold metal clang as the magnet locked onto the metal in his shoulder and spoke with his usual calm. "Do you know that magnetizing me might have unanticipated effects? I might end up sleeping in line with the Earth's magnetic field or the next ship we travel on might end up crashing into an iceberg because I threw the compass off."

Or you could develop a magnetic sense like messenger hawks and have a strong navigational sense." Azula followed Karo as he began to sort out the mess in the house. "You should rest and relax, I can clean up."

"Give it your best shot." Karo lay back on the couch after shoving several editions of the _Komatsu Post and Times_ off of it. He shifted until he found a position laying on his side that allowed him to rest without too much pain. Mitsumi lay at his feet and chattered contentedly and the green gecko with blue spots walked across the ceiling and stuck its tongue out looking to eat a fly or two. Karo reached around and found a pink pig fridge magnet stuck to his shoulder – a possible reason he had shooting pain on that side. He tossed it onto the coffee table and let his eyes close and his body relax while remaining alert to any sounds that signaled Azula had damaged the house.

* * *

"Congratulations," Karo had spent the night on the rust red couch and woke up long after Azula and Mitsumi had begun to putter around the house. He found himself staring at a large pile of what once comprised the mess rather than seeing it distributed all over the floor. He cracked his shoulder as he sat up. "You have invented the heap."

"A mess in one place beats a mess all over – we physicists call it containment," Azula took up a seat next to Karo on the couch.

"Have you got any plans for this heap?"

Azula put her arms on her legs with a hearty slap as if she had reached a decision on the matter, "We could push it into the backyard and hide it under a tarp?"

"I fear most physicists do take that kind of an approach to their messes." Karo felt he needed a shower and a change of clothes and rose slowly off the couch making _oof _and _ouch_ noises.

Karo took a long shower in the cramped bathroom of the cottage. He hated dusty pink as a color but this bathroom had olive green as a dominant theme for the fixtures and in the sunlight of the frosted window the color looked hideous – as if someone had tried to imitate the color of bile in a ceramic glaze.

Azula had circled the heap in the living room, then circled it in the other direction. She had to obey the statutes of the _City of Komatsu_ which meant no open burning since the warm climate and semi arid climate made wildfires a possibility. She tried to work out a way of burying it but she knew of no earth benders she could contact and Mitsumi had no useful suggestions. As she pondered this problem and Karo showered and sang a long, pointless song about someone named Chiquatita – a banana Goddess or something; a heavy knock came at the door.

"Chiquatita blah!"

"Karo! Karo!" Azula knocked on the wooden door to the bathroom.

"What!" Karo yelled back after he had turned off the tap to the shower. "What? You sound panicked; the heap start threatening to send a landslide over the tropical village? Call in the army engineers to handle the heap – maybe you have some pull."

"Your dad wants to speak with you." Azula opened the door a slight amount.

"My dad!" Karo placed an ugly olive green towel around his waist and used another green towel to dry himself off. "Can you tell him I will see him in a few minutes – serve him some tea and explain that I don't wish to face him without a neat uniform and a gun. I will slip into something more comfortable - I call it Omashu."

Admiral Zhao looked older and more ragged than the man Azula remembered and he had managed to rise from the dead which made Azula nervous but she served him a concoction of her best tea and a special ingredient. Admiral Zhao accepted the tea, took a sip and then as he sat on the rusty red couch he wrinkled his nose and placed the cup and saucer down.

"Imagine a woman who can't make a decent cup of tea!" Zhao huffed with contempt and then he promptly rolled his eyes and fell sideways on the couch. Azula sprang into action and with a few skilled motions had Zhao hogtied and bound to the heavy couch with a heavy extension cord.

Karo came into the room and winced as his shoulder ached, "you didn't kill him did you!"

"I gave him a bear sized dose of your pain medication." Azula kicked Zhao to demonstrate that fact.

"Which one?" Karo checked the wrist of the hogtied man for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he found one.

"The morphine – the blue liquid." Azula answered calmly, "the aspirin wouldn't knock out a fly."

Karo considered this for a second, "oh dear...now what do we do?"

"You go out and call the police and then work out some easily understood falsehood to explain why we have Admiral Zhao unconscious on our couch," Azula offered.

Karo walked out into the sunlight of a tropical day looking for a police officer or a police box or a public phone. Telephones had not yet become common and like automobiles, only the wealthiest households had one. If one lacked a phone, they had to summon the police from a public phone or from a red police box in public areas around the city. Karo had only the vaguest idea of the layout of the neighborhood. The city did not make finding things easy: it lay on the sprawling hills that lay north to south along the harbor and the streets did not have a grid pattern. He decided to head downhill – toward the downtown core and tourist area in hope of finding a telephone.

Karo had no idea the neighborhood he lived in had the name Queensland Heights and had not yet fully mapped out that sector of suburbia. After running downhill frantically he found a tidy little grocery store called the Queensland Heights Grocers about a block and a half down the hill from the house. He found a heavy red telephone made of cast iron just inside the open door of the market past the displays of fresh fruit. The telephone advertised the fact one could summon the police and so Karo now half out of breath picked up the receiver and waited.

Admiral Zhao came to consciousness and it took several moments for the world to focus. He tried to free himself from the cord but whoever had knocked him out had done a very good job of tying him down.

"Karo has gone to fetch the authorities," Azula stood over Admiral Zhao, "he had wished to challenge you to an Agni Kai but had to refuse."

"Why would he behave so dishonorably?" Zhao hissed as he struggled against the electric cord.

Azula understood how much of a symbol the Agni Kai held for the old traditionalists among the Fire Nation but history had obliterated much of that. Azula decided to explain because she could make it boring and pedantic and it would buy time for Karo to find the police. "As the former Duke of Henwa Island, you must know it has a long dry season and so the Provincial Legislature has decreed no one shall conduct open burning. Karo would have fought an Agni Kai but since he is very cheap and the fines are so steep; he does not wish to pay the costs."

Azula knew the sound of a grapple gun when triggered and the next moment the door fell away in a large shower of fragments and the SWAT team in red and black uniforms similar to Fire Nation army flooded into the living room.

"I have him subdued," Azula said as she looked at her nails, "but I know who to call if I want a door ripped off its hinges." Azula let her voice become gravelly as an expression of her irritation.

The commander of the SWAT team took no chances and his men formed a cover of crossbows around the hogtied Admiral Zhao. He signed the 'all clear' and the message passed down through the ranks of the SWAT team.

The officer wrestled Admiral Zhao to his feet, "My good Admiral Zhao, if only you knew how many countries would want a piece of you. The authorities here want you for the attempted murder of your son, for embezzling and your involvement in the prison camps during the war. The Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom want you for Crimes against Humanity such as torture, murder and war crimes. You have made my career."

The police handled him like a deadly psychopath and Azula watched as they shackled him with heavy handcuffs and menaced him with crossbows and as far as she could judge, some of the police moved like they were Fire Nation trained fire benders.

Karo stood outside the house holding his shoulder in some pain as he had exhorted himself trying to find a police box. He stood next to several tall police officers next to a large Jacaranda that grew by the front walk that led into the house and wrestled with conflicting emotions. The sun beat down on him as he watched his father leaving under heavy police escort. 'Could it really be over' he thought to himself as he watched his father. He kicked at the brown grass nervously and hoped his father would simply ignore him.

"I have no son!" Admiral Zhao said in a low deliberate voice as he passed Karo – the man who would possibly seal his fate and see him spend a lifetime in prison. Zhao didn't know he had the good fortune to fall into custody in Henwa Island. Henwa lacked the death penalty and he would end up in prison for life. The Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom wanted to execute him.

* * *

"I swear," Azula griped to Karo, "you put your robes after your father was arrested and you have not left this couch since yesterday evening."

Karo pointed in the air drawing a map in the air of his travels as he described them, "I went from the couch to the bathroom, back to the couch, read the newspaper and then went to sleep."

"You will be happy to know the police will pay to repair the door." Azula sat on the couch next to Karo who lay in fetal position with Mitsumi preening his hair. "The screen door worked but we need a more solid defense against the elements."

"My shoulder hurts – that is all." Karo complained. "Nothing at all major; I need a little rest after this week."

Azula motioned for Karo to sit up, "I want to take a look - maybe we should have the good doctor take another look."

Karo sat up slowly and Azula took a careful look at the bandaged shoulder. She mulled things over in her mind for a moment and then made a quick decision. "We can carry you off that couch a dead man, have the surgeon lop off your arm or have it checked out. You keep bleeding like the wounds are fresh."

"Okay...I will get ready," Karo walked toward the bathroom.

Azula held him by the shoulder with a tenderness no one could have expected from her. "I will pile you in the car and take you there now. I don't know much about this kind of thing but my best judgment says we need to get you back to the hospital."

Azula tried to drive gently to avoid making the situation worse. She didn't panic but she had a sense the precision cuts of the surgeon had fixed the damage but Karo had not begun to heal and his eight old day wounds had begun to bleed again. Karo had grown listless and she suspected an infection might have also set in – in spite of the carbolic acid used on the bandages.

The hospital looked like a typical hospital in any industrialized nation. The hospital had once served as a military hospital and a few old Fire Nation barracks – long single story buildings with red tile roofs sat on the grounds. A square concrete building that looked like a prison cell block rose four stories over the grounds – Lord Azulon had expanded the hospital: in his quest to conquer the world he had found new and creative ways to injure unlucky soldiers. A new concrete and steel tower attached to it rose eight stories and formed a T shape with the older part forming the top of the tee.

Azula parked in the huge lot set aside for visitors and it had a mixed crowd of carriages with ostrich horses and primitive cars. The sign stated as much and a long border of ornamental shrubbery surrounded it. Karo opened the door and walked out only to have Azula pick him up in her arms and through determined grit, carry him to the large overhang that led to the Emergency ward where a male nurse met them with a wheelchair and wheeled Karo inside.

* * *

"I see you have healed nicely," Doctor Leng said as he held up a large semi transparent X – Ray to the light of the window. "We found no infection and no complications."

Karo felt like death as he lay back on a hospital bed and saw fit to ask the expert the question on his mind. "Why do I feel like death warmed over and then reheated twice for leftovers?"

"You have a long term illness called hemophilia that gets worse when you experience stress." The doctor placed the X -Ray on the bed, "we know almost nothing about it and we have no treatment except to advise you to take it easy and avoid stress."

Karo gave that thought a good mulling over, "and so I'm a dead man then? Azula is my fiance and my dad keeps escaping custody and trying to kill me. You can see my dilemma – on one hand my father is nuts and on the other I am due to wed a mad scientist."

Azula wandered in the room casually eating what passed for a hospital food equivalent of a vegetarian taquito and stood at the foot of Karo's bed with a wicked looking smile on her face, "you have a pint of my blood in you now – lucky for you you have the same blood type – bloody unlucky for me. If I weren't around they'd give you the cheap hobo blood that the Henwa Island medical plan covers. If we paid cash, you'd get the classy blood taken from the mental patients in the other wing of the hospital."

"Mouthwash drinking hobos?" Karo asked, "or the ones that drink the same stuff the hospital disinfects the surgeries with?"

The doctor seemed uncomfortable but when Azula finished speaking he broke in. "I know you have some issues in your life young Karo so I have recommended relaxation and a course of therapy with one of our eminent psychiatrists – Doctor Jung."

"I have a blood disease," Karo said flatly.

"You have depression," the doctor said firmly, "and I don't blame you but if you want to stay healthy then you have to learn how to take care of your physical and mental health."

"What do you think?" Karo asked Azula as she looked at the X – Ray the doctor had placed on the bed.

Azula held up the X – Ray to the light and issued her verdict in her blunt manner, "in recent weeks you have been less happy than my brother. You have a mad, homicidal maniac of a father – welcome to the club. Given both of our lives and the way life throws manure from the stinkiest barnyard animals in our path we should both be members of the _drool and carry your lunch pail to lunch after art therapy class_. Will the medical plan cover therapy or does an hour on the couch of the good Doctor Jung cost a mint?" She held up the X Ray to the light, "you would think the alien probe would show up on this."

"Medical insurance will cover it," the good doctor said as he stood up and grabbed the X – Ray out of Azula's hand. "I will set up the appointments and let you know the schedule before you leave the hospital. Now your friend needs his rest - I will discharge him in two days. You should go home and rest too." He left the room quickly as if finding the Princess a bit of a strange duck and as if he had better things to do than talk to her.

"Alien probe?" Karo dared to ask.

Azula patted his head, "somewhere in the vast universe, reality makes sense and a civilization has advanced to the point where it can travel to other stars. They come to our world and tag the inhabitants to study them. Kind of like the tags we put on cattle," She wiggled her hands, "but much more advanced – even able to modify our minds."

Karo shook his head, "wouldn't the sign of a truly intelligent race be that_ it_ wouldn't bother with _us_? I mean when you can travel between stars wouldn't you spend your time playing with black holes or using quantum effects to cheat at dice games. Coming to our messed up world is kind of like having a chance to go on a safari but booking a stay at the asylum instead."

Azula crossed her arms, "well you explain where all those dirty jokes come from! Can you explain how we all have heard the same hooters joke but never find the author? Aliens put them into our minds and study how they circulate."

* * *

"He got sick again but he's resting at home on the couch." Azula dispensed with formal greetings as she met Katara and Lady Zhao as they walked off the gangway onto the cruise ship dock dragging a palette of luggage and steamer trunks behind them. "You read the telegrams and know his father returned to kill him but the authorities have him in custody."

Lady Zhao rushed up and hugged Azula, "I have worried so much about both of you!"

Azula put her arms around Lady Zhao as Katara watched.

The cruise ship dock was not the best place to carry on a conversation as it lay next to the large cargo docks and at the moment Lady Zhao hugged Azula a large shipment of iron ore crashed into the hold of a large steam powered freighter making the sound of a thousand cannonballs being dropped off a conveyor belt. The group and the luggage made their way to the place where Azula had illegally parked the car and where a policeman on horseback had dropped a ticket and his horse had dropped a mound.

Katara sat in the front seat of the car while Lady Zhao rode in the back with the luggage. Katara found Komatsu an attractive but overly modern city with square buildings and the look of a city that had fallen to Earth and landed in place as a splotch over the hills. The car rolled past blocks of shops, a public school and a row of dull flat roofed four story apartment buildings as Azula drove further up the rolling hills. The city looked pleasant to Katara with the palms and delicate tropical hardwood trees although she did worry Azula might slam into a sturdy tree at a high rate of speed. Katara found the climate to her disliking – humid and overly warm even in mid winter. The houses spread up and into the hills and Azula drove past countless low lying bungalows built to keep cool in the murderous heat of the summer.

Azula pulled to one side as a tram rumbled by. The Queensland #17 tram stopped, then a bell struck and a red sign stuck out and commanded motorists and carriage drivers to stop. A few passengers tromped across the paved street and on to their own destination.

"Oh crap!" Azula growled, "I hate this stupid city. I forgot how to get home from here."

Katara looked at Azula in disbelief. "Don't you have a map?"

""Why would I have one of those?" Azula pulled over to the side of the road. "The tram runs along..." She snapped her fingers to jog her memory, "see we live in a low lying area between hills near a swamp and have gators so this is Firth Street." Azula began to drive forward and turned off a badly paved side street that lead down a steep hill. Azula knew the sad fact that no one could make sense of Komatsu since it lacked a grid system for the streets and unlike Ba Sing Se lacked any kind of ring system to organize neighborhoods. Komatsu had begun as a village with roads designed for animals of burden. Time went by and they widened for carriages and the city paved them with stone to prevent the yearly monsoon mud bog which caused tanks to get stuck. The city grew out and the roads curved around hills and thus created a city of roads where five or six streets met at an intersection. "Bloody city is laid out like one of those fence mazes they use to guide cattle into slaughterhouses!"

Azula didn't as much drive the car as aim it between the rows of palm trees and telegraph poles lining the street. Katara thought a rational legal system would limit the speed allows down narrow roads and realized they did have speed limits when Azula blew past the sign heading downhill past an elementary school. Katara breathed a huge sigh of relief when Azula stopped in front of a brick bungalow and missed the shabby Jacaranda tree by inches.

She parked on the brick driveway and stated the obvious, "we've arrived! Not quite the huge home a duke deserves but you may see a gator or if the local rumors are correct a vampire stalking the night."

"You have to be kidding!" Lady Zhao said incredulously as she stepped out of the car into the dead purple flowers the Jacaranda tree took such pleasure in dropping when it sensed people. She brushed the flowers off her fine robes and tucked a box under her arm.

Azula rubbed her arm, "well a thin, pale, little guy has taken two of my best pints."  
"Hey sweetie!" Lady Zhao said as she opened the front door and found Karo in his best red night robe reading the paper. "I hear you haven't been very well." She ran her hands through her son's hair and then hugged him.

Karo felt like he had fallen into some kind of industrial machine that made lumber. He hugged his mother and genuinely enjoyed seeing her but the hug hurt and he had almost no energy to do much but lay on the reddish orange dusty couch that had become his close friend.

"I will show you two to your room, you can rest up from your trip." Azula said as Katara knelt down and attended to Karo.

Katara had a sense for the special energy of the body and could tell at a touch that the crossbow bolt had damaged Karo's shoulder severely. The surgeon had exercised great skill in fitting the bones back together but to Katara the metal pins seemed unnatural and made holes in the pattern of life energy flowing through Karo.

Azula watched all of Katara's gentle examination and decided to pry, "what has gone wrong with Karo this time? The tetanus shot they gave him worked – he has lockjaw? I might get jealous if I see you touching him."

Katara ignored Azula and a blue glow emanated from Katara's hands and Karo felt an exhilaration and a tingling like electricity but pleasant and revitalizing. The warmth of Katara's touch seemed to grow through his shoulder and in a tide the pain seemed to wash away. Karo felt motion return and the odd warmth lingered when Katara lifted her hands.

"Well," Azula seemed taken aback by the demonstration of Katara's healing power but as was her way she made an oblique comment, "I guess we can drop the medical plan?"

"He will have a scar and his right shoulder will always be weak but I do what I can." Katara spoke like a physician. "Among the Water Tribes we have gifted healers who cure our injuries and diseases. Of course Karo had a skilled surgeon who made my work a lot easier."

"Can you fix polio?" Azula said sarcastically but she hugged Katara and kissed her right cheek, "or smallpox, rabies or malaria? I like the climate on Henwa Island but we have to take malaria pills and they always make my stomach queasy."

"I need to rest," Katara said calmly, "so can you please can you show us to our room?"

"Oh yes." Azula motioned for Lady Zhao who gave her son another hug and Katara to follow her. "I will mention that the room lacks a few amenities usually found in bedrooms – like beds. We have sleeping bags and will try to make you as comfortable as possible. We don't have a telephone yet but Komatsu Telephone and Telegraph has promised to install it next Thursday afternoon. We do have a phone number which is Hector 6768 – go figure."

The room had mustard yellow walls although Azula had a ruder name for the colors. It had red hardwood floors and nothing else except for a tall box with the words Old Sports Illustrated Magazines in Karo's draftsman like handwriting.

Katara didn't mind sleeping on the floor – far less so than Azula. She decided to explore the kitchen. It was a small room with bright orange painted cabinets and cupboards, a gas range, an actual icebox and a large and growing mass of take out food containers made of metal foil from a half dozen restaurants. Azula had definitely made her mark on the kitchen through the mess while Karo had made his mark with a sleek bullet shaped chrome toaster dubbed the BreadMaster 2000.

Karo walked into the kitchen in his red night robe, "I wanted to thank you for helping with my shoulder. I admire modern medicine with the X – Ray machines and the mind altering drugs and the large buildings and bad food but – my shoulder feels a lot better."

"I am glad to help," Katara answered sweetly, "but I really need some master junk bending to make this kitchen look civilized." Katara patted Karo's head and then picked up a strange pole sitting against the cabinets in the corner. "What on earth does this do?"

"The Azula Gator prod – we have gators – no one told me this at the time we rented the place and we had one in the back yard and so Azula the mad scientist made that out of some parts. It sends electricity through the ground or into the gator to discourage them from setting up home." Karo cracked his shoulder for the sheer joy of having movement.

* * *

A day later Katara had the kitchen back into order and had even removed the mess from the pressure cooker from the ceiling. Karo had woken up, showered and dressed before ten in the morning for the first time in days. He had an appointment with Doctor Jung at two in the afternoon and having never visited a shrink had no real idea what to expect and by asking Katara discovered she had no idea what to expect. Azula walked into the kitchen as Katara fussed making tea and cleaning.

A knock came at the door and Karo answered the two to find two police officers anda man in formal Fire Nation dress stood on the front stoop.

"May we see Karo Zhao?" The tall, formally dressed elderly man with the gray but surprising complete long head of hair spoke politely. He had a delicately made bag slung over his left shoulder and had Karo known Henwa Island better; he would have recognized the man as one of Komatsu's district attorneys.

"I am Karo Zhao. What may I do for you?" Karo bowed.

"I am Lao Tsing, the leading District Barrister and I have come to present you with a summons to appear." He held out a legal sized sheaf of papers for Karo. "We have charged him with your attempted murder, several counts of murder and the Fire Nation Crown has placed charges of treason and crimes against humanity." He cleared his throat. "We have to prepare the trial. We have set bail at twenty million gold."

Karo looked down at the sheaf of papers which included the usual legal set of documents for summons which had a schedule of appointments with the barrister and a set of sheets explaining his role as a witness and the legal obligations. Karo looked at the man and bowed, "I have to testify against my father? I will try my best."

The barrister bowed and then spoke, "very well – and we will help you to prepare for your court appearance. You will find much in that packet to explain the legal process. Have a nice day and if you have any questions you may consult our office during office hours. The address is included but our office is in the courthouse on the second floor."

Karo entered the house, sat on the couch and looked at the papers for a long time.

Azula placed a cup of tea for Karo on the table and read over Karo's shoulder. "The witness as summoned by the Province: Karo Zhao? What does that mean?"

Karo shoved the papers onto the coffee table and spoke in a tired voice, "nothing unexpected or unforeseen. My father or his henchmen shot me in the shoulder and the Province has charged him with attempted murder."

Azula mulled for a moment. "When my father ruled the Fire Nation; no province would attempt to charge a member of the nobility with a crime and any attorney that tried to convict a noble of something would find themselves very suddenly dead. If a noble did something wrong we hid the crime or blamed a lackey – servants didn't just serve. They call lawyers _barristers_ in this country and Henwa Island seems very determined to conduct this trial independent of the Fire Nation."

* * *

Karo stepped off the tram after his hour with Doctor Jung. Doctor Jung looked like a psychiatrist with a graying beard and a balding head of hair. The two had discussed basic things about Karo's life and the psychiatrist talked about_ the talking therapy _he planned to use on Karo to ease him through his depression. Doctor Jung had gained his experience and his lofty offices on the top floor of the Mental Health Wing of the hospital through his work with shell shocked soldiers.

The tram trundled away leaving Karo in the sun of the afternoon. Karo felt depressed as he walked down the side street to his home. Karo wondered if this new kind of therapy would work or if he had an affliction like his fiance – Azula – where something in his mind had simply been overwhelmed by events and like a deep jagged gash would never fully heal. Azula worried about relapses (her sociopathic tendencies hardly bothered her but she feared losing her clarity of thought). Azula held the radical idea that disease of the mind came out of the biochemistry of the brain but the Victorian science of their era remained far to primitive to allow science to prove that idea. Karo had no idea how a mind could work on material principles – Azula imagined a kind of computing network using brain cells. Deep thoughts about the theory of mind eluded Karo and Azula had seen nothing more sophisticated than a telephone switchboard which used human operators to connect the calling parties.

Karo walked across the dead, brown lawn of their home. The denizens of Henwa under influence of Fire Nation culture had imported grass for lawns. The long nine month droughts always killed the lawn which saved mowing without constant watering – the city water works did not have the capacity to keep up. Karo entered the house and sat on the couch with a tired gasp and leaned back.

"Is anybody home?" Karo called out.

"How did it go?" Katara asked from the kitchen.

Karo let Mitsumi crawl onto his lap and then answered Katara, "I have no idea how the talking therapy is supposed to work. Doctor Jung asked me a bunch of questions about my background, my childhood and then our hour ran out."

Katara placed a teapot in the cheap looking coffee table, sat on the couch and offered a cup to Karo.

"Thank you," Karo sipped the tea, "Where did my mom and Azula go?"

Katara seemed hesitant to answer that question as if she feared Karo would not believe her answer or take her as one of those isolated old drunks who saw or got kidnapped by alien motherships but she paused and then spoke, "looking at wedding dresses."

Tea came out of Karo's nose as he coughed.

"Azula had much the same reaction when your mother suggested it," Katara patted Karo's back to help clear his airway, "but she doesn't want to wear a dress at the wedding and has problems with looking girly."

Karo straightened up and lovingly patted Mitsumi's head, "I don't know if I can get married - I have to appear in court so they can jail my father and I am in therapy for depression."

Katara played with the edges of her blue water tribe robes searching for the right words. "Your father tried to kill you and had you shot in the shoulder and should face justice. I would worry about you if you went through all of this and didn't need therapy. We all need help from time to time even the mightiest of water benders."

"You needed therapy?" Karo asked.

Katara fidgeted with her fingers as she sat on the sofa. "From time to time I have sought out counseling. I had my share of dreams crushed - I have never married and never found the right guy. I wanted a family. I fought for the Avatar and he married someone else although we were in love at one time - I think – so I have some regrets."

"Oh." Karo said quietly.

Azula opened the new door and gave it a quick boot to shove it out of her way. She held a large box about two foot square in her arms and she placed it somewhat loudly on the table. She smiled and asked, "can you guess what's in the box?"

"Even more boxes? That new detergent they say makes your clothes sparkle?" Karo answered somewhat unenthusiastically since he really didn't what Azula to have to wear a dress since such girly things were decidedly not her. Azula worked best when she dressed in her Fire Nation garb, had the freedom to use her cutting sarcasm and could tinker with the kinds of dangerous things in physics that either burned, electrocuted or caused cancer in the careless.

"Maybe if I turned it this way." Azula smiled wickedly.

Lady Zhao came in the door and closed it quietly but she showed signs of frustration, "I have never had a more difficult task in my life - I could get Azula in a nice wedding dress but I fear that would involve the kind of force and art of war only nations could exert."

"I won't wear white dress," Azula huffed, " because given my love affair with Ty Lee and the adventures with your son – and I hate dresses."

"A Supertone S450 Radio with programmable tuning?" Karo read off the side of the cardboard box. "wait – adventures? The shrink asked me about all of that too, and I kind of blushed like I am blushing now."

Azula laughed, "I have seen you with your face up against the radio and appliances shops downtown looking at all the things electric you could purchase and play with so we – your mom and me – decided to buy a radio."

Karo opened the brown cardboard box as if it contained a holy relic. The box contained the large detergent box sized radio, a well typeset stapled manual and a hundred feet of lamp cord. Katara looked on skeptically – it seemed to her the end of the War had unlocked some kind of hidden drive for progress and gadgets.

Azula picked up the roll of wire and headed for the backyard.

"Wait," Karo protested, "I haven't made sense of all the instructions yet!"

Azula unrolled the wire and yelled back, "only Water Tribe wienies have to read instructions! Put the radio on the dining room table and wait there!"

Karo excitedly stomped to the table and placed the wooden box on the table as if given the strictest orders by a military officer. As he set down the radio; Azula entered the dining room with the end of the wire and she placed it on two metal nuts and tightened them to the radio.

"If I have hooked up the antenna properly," Azula stood in front of the radio, "we will hear music or something sent out by the Royal Broadcasting Corporation of the Fire Nation."

"If you didn't hook it up properly?" Katara asked sternly as she stood near the couch with her hands on her hips.

Azula turned the volume knob and a tungsten yellow light came on as the set hummed. She smiled as she waited and felt fit to reply to Katara, "we will know if you have any metal plates in your head."

The radio was a rectangular wooden box polished with varnish and red stain and Azula gave it prime placement on the dining room table. The dial on the left side had a brown knob for tuning, selecting the band and volume along the bottom and five buttons that operated like the buttons on a car radio to shuttle between stations. The speaker sat on the right and the entire radio was about the size of a breadbox.

Karo sat on the couch next to his mother. Mitsumi scattered the cardboard and paper packing materials over both of them as he enjoyed destroying the box.

"Welcome to RBC1 Henwa!" A rich, deep baritone voice spoke out of the radio. "Greetings to all the Citizens of Henwa and all those listening in overseas!"

"What on earth could you find to listen to on the radio that would keep you up until one in the morning?" Azula grumbled as Karo entered the room.

"News and a catchy ad for soap that makes your clothes all sparkling and fresh." Karo tightened his night robe and Mitsumi greeted his human with the customary lick and chattering. "Don't you want me smelling all sparkling and fresh?"

Azula pulled the red blanket over to to stake her share. "I never smell you."

"You had to _give_ my mother _my_ futon?" Karo complained then elaborated, "you have forgotten why we don't share a bed – you snore!"

Azula held the blanket open, "nobody's perfect. Do I need to tell me what bothers me when I sleep with you? History will record your nickname – the drooling Duke Zhao. Your legs twitch and you boot me in the ass when you fall asleep – need I go on?"

Karo lay down and stretched his legs, "I do not drool."

"I sleep next to you and dream of drowning at sea on a sinking ship." Azula complained then changed topic, "do you know any dragons?"

Karo sighed as he tried to relax, "no - I think I will sleep on the couch given that blast off will take place in under a half hour. Dragons? Why do you ask?"

One is looking in the window – that is all." Azula turned on her side.

Holy hell!" Karo jumped out of bed and stared into an eye the size of a plate. Even to his surprise he had the presence of mind to slowly open the screen window and he cleared his throat. "Um – you a dragon?"

"I can't sneak any detail past you – young Zhao." A low voice rumbled.

Karo looked in the dim light to Azula, "I have gone insane, haven't I?"

"You have to have sanity to lose it," Azula sat up in bed. "I see the dragon too but I have no clue as to why he would pay us a visit – don't shell out five hundred gold for a vacuum cleaner."

Karo looked at the dragon, "you sell vacuums?"

"Botheration!" The dragon growled, "the Avatar praised your intelligence and I didn't think him a bad judge of character."

"We do need a vacuum," Karo said sincerely. "I will admit that the moment of awe at meeting a mythological beast has not hit me yet – maybe my psychiatrist did something to my mind. Why _are_ you here?"

"The Avatar sent me."

Azula yawned and decided to speak up, "What! he doesn't have a mailbox? You do know it is..."

Azula and Karo heard a loud scream from the next room.

Katara ran into the room and yelled, "I thought all dragons were dead!"

"Yes," Azula dryly remarked, "this one is alive – the Avatar sent him because Aang couldn't scrape up a bronze piece or forty for a stamp and a letter?"

"Yeah..." Karo chimed in, "I hate the way they keep hiking the cost of posting a letter."

"If I may intrude!" The dragon intruded with a voice that held more of a threatening tone. "The Avatar sent me to fetch his fire bending friends Karo and Azula and Katara of the Water Tribe and bring them to the site of the Western Air Temple."

"Hold on!" Azula held out her hand. "Firstly – this is a time we call one fifteen in the morning. Avatar Ass – er Aang – can't expect us come at the drop of a hat and secondly Admiral Zhao nearly killed Karo and so did buggered genetics and we still don't know whether to pay his medical insurance or begin putting some cash aside for his cremation and the catering at his memorial service."

"I can cremate all of you effortlessly," Karo saw a hint of frustration cross the eyes of the dragon.

"A threat?" Azula asked.

"Indeed!"

"Okay...? Can you give us a few minutes to shower, put some clothes together, grab a toothbrush and meet you in the backyard." Azula said diplomatically.

"On Zeppelins they have these little bags of BBQ flavored peanuts," Karo began to ask as Azula and Katara both raced for the bathroom, "you wouldn't happen to have any of those? I really love those."


	3. Chapter 3

**Tales of Henwa Island**

**The Return of the Duke of Henwa Island III**

**The Revelations of Aang the Avatar**

Azula had no idea why Aang had brought them to the Western Air Temple and it wasn't in her nature to be complaint. The dragon had dropped them off on one of the verandas of the Western Air Temple and then beat a straight ling directly away from the temple and left them in the middle of an empty stone patio with only a fountain for company. A twelve year old boy with a shaved head named Tang greeted them and explained that Aang would meet with them later but until then – they should rest.

Karo had decided to rest and lay on the bed under the window. He found it more upsetting to have to fly on a dragon – without having peanuts to munch; than to find himself in a strange corner of the world with no idea why Aang had summoned him.

"Karo!" Azula shouted, "Karo! Wake up."

Karo stirred under the saffron colors of the bed covers, "mmhmm?" Karo sat up and yawned, then looked out the window. "What time is it?" He asked as he looked at the twilight and realized he had lost all track of time.

"About quarter to five in the morning," Azula had managed to get some sleep but she could not sleep well with all of the uncertainty about the purpose behind this trip. "I couldn't sleep very well."

"Kind of you to let me share in that experience," Karo put his feet on the floor but then lay back in bed. "Great Gods above – that floor is cold."

"Don't you wonder why Tang asked Katara to come with him?"

"Mmmhmm," Karo rolled under the covers and mumbled something about wanting a fresh cup of Tang with bacon and eggs.

Azula thew a pillow at him and it bounced off his head and went through the window to plummet into the abyss below the Air Nomad Temple, "I mean Tang the Air Nomad – you jackass!"

"Who?" Karo turned around and spoke in utter confusion, "who is Tang?"

"You met a young boy about twelve or thirteen – blue arrow tattoo and the orange and yellow clothes? Do you recall any of this?" Azula scowled at Karo for losing her pillow and being dim at a dim hour. "He had the name _Tang!_"

Karo yawned, "that fills a gap in my knowledge. Any of our questions will be answered in due time – possibly with a crash of thunder, a flash of lightning and four horsemen. Before then, I think the chances of us figuring any of this would have to rise to reach zip so I would recommend sleeping and some Tang in the morning. Tang makes the perfect artificial non fruit, fruit drink."

The floor was cold and Azula pulled her feet up and lay back under the covers. The Air Nomads had no corner on the market for taste and the barren room told her they were not much for creature comforts. She vowed to hit Karo upside the head at some random time the next day. "Karo?"

"Mmmh?"

"What are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?" Azula asked quietly.

"No idea," Karo muttered, "but I would guess one of them is insomnia caused by a fiance asking imponderables."

"Hit Karo upside the head," Azula whispered quietly to herself.

* * *

A girl about fifteen knocked on the heavy wood door of Azula's room at around nine in the morning although to Azula it seemed like she had only just managed to fall asleep. Karo appeared from behind the girl already dressed and freshened. The dragons had given the trio from Henwa time to pack a few belongings and Karo had picked his best clothes and he had decided to go with his best to meet the Avatar.

"I needed to wake you up so you could prepare for your meeting with the Avatar in the Hall of Echoes." The girl bowed before Azula. "Please gather your things and follow me."

Azula smacked Karo upside the head as she walked past him, softly so as not to wreck his glasses but she intended to make good on her plans to hit him upside the head.

"What was that for?" Karo rubbed the left side of his head, "I usually have to do something on the Azula _screw up list_ to earn that! I didn't do anything!"

"My name is Akiko...and that was awfully mean," the girl said. She wore the Air Nomad uniform and had the tattoos and struck Azula as having the looks of someone coming from a long line of Earth Benders with her brown eyes and to Azula a rather unappealing freckled face.

Azula followed Akiko to the room that passed for a washroom.

"It's rather squalid," Azula looked at the room with the dim daylight seeping through two narrow windows that looked to Azula like castle murder holes. She noticed delicate carvings on the floor and a stone counter with a sink carved in it lined the wall below the murder holes. Azula could make out very little color in the room but she set about to do her best to clean up and wipe away the dirt of the trip.

"I will return to fetch you in a few minutes," Akiko bowed.

Azula turned her back and said nothing. The Air Nomads had returned in small numbers but the Western Air Temple remained a long way from the bustling center of a monastic community of thousands and it haunted her as she sat in the silent room and washed herself and prepared from the coming day. The washroom had no mirrors but Azula had learned to straighten her hair. She ran her comb through her hair and placed her hair in the delicate queue she had worn as a Fire Nation Warrior. She had decided to hate this place not because Air Nomads had returned but because she found it reminded her of her past.

"I hope you are ready, "Akiko returned and spoke through the door, "we will meet with the Avatar soon."

Azula dusted her uniform off and placed her red night robe in her knapsack and trudged toward the heavy door.

Akiko waited for her with Karo in the dim hallway. She had her hands clasped and she bowed again as she greeted Azula. "I will take you to the _Hall of Echoes_. The Avatar is anxious to meet you."

"If you were anxious to meet me, would you leave me waiting?" Azula stood at the far end of a large and perfectly square room with Karo and Katara.

"You? No!" Karo thought the room lit by dim lanterns looked like a badly executed plan for a kind of concert hall. The floor sloped down like a concert hall but it had a slow gentle incline with no platforms for the seats. "You keep hitting me upside the head for such small infractions. I can't speak for Avatar Aang."

The room seemed to boom with the sound of their voices.

"This would be the_ Hall of Echoes_," Azula walked forward.

"I am sorry to keep you waiting but my wife is pregnant with my first child." A voice replied from the darkness. "She is in the third trimester and needs my constant attention."

At this point Katara expected Azula to do something. Azula had the kind of sarcasm that could level a city and nothing would prove more of an invitation to a withering comment than this news but Azula said nothing.

"Yes," the disembodied voice answered back in order to break the silence.

"What does that have to do with me?" Azula looked at Karo with an incriminating look, "did Karo have anything to do with this?"

"Hell no!" Karo said.

"No," the voice answered back calmly, "but I know you are happy for me."

"And you needed us to hold the pom poms and cheer the miracle of childbirth?"

Avatar Aang had acquired a quiet dignity and depth of character that intimidated Azula as he calmly walked into the dim light. He still wore the clothes of an Air Nomad but he had matured, grown taller and his boyish frame had filled out.

"I have spend six hours riding on the back of a purple dragon," Azula complained with her brutal frankness, "and I didn't sleep well and I want some questions answered."

A fountain made the sound of rushing water in the distance but Azula could not make out where the sound came from. She had only ever seen the temple from the outside but the _Hall of Echoes_ amplified every sound inside the vast warren of rooms cut into the effect of the fountain combine with the sound of so few people dwelling inside the vast temple made Azula feel uneasy.

Karo stumbled a bit and regained his balance but he felt like vomiting from a combination of exhaustion and airsickness. Azula steadied him as he faltered and noticed his pallor.

"You doing all right?" Azula asked.

"When I get home I will be." Karo said quietly.

Avatar Aang had a stern look on his face as he spoke, "I wished to see you because I have some important things to say. I know you do not feel well Karo but I had to bring you here. Lady Zhao and Lady Ursa grew up as sisters but a dark sinister secret looms over both of them. Both women had unhappy marriages because they married evil and power hungry men."

Karo stepped forward, "so the dark secret is that I am Lady Ursa's son and Zuko is Lady Zhao's son? Azula is my sister."

Azula gave Karo one of those looks as if she believed Karo had gone insane but in her mind that sort of irony made a good deal of sense. Karo half expected to receive a smack in the head.

"Not exactly." Aang said apologetically.

Azula put her hands on his hips and tried to hide her disappointment, "yeah...we will call off the wedding."

"You don't have to." Aang answered quietly "I brought all three of you here because I have news for all three of you."

"Katara? Your mother had twins – one a strong baby girl but the other a weak and frail young boy." Aang said quietly as he walked towards her. "In a Fire Nation raid on your village, a young and evil petty officer named Zhao took advantage of your mother's kind heart. He threatened to kill everyone in your village if he could not take her as his lover." Aang felt a deep pain has he spoke. "Your mother gave birth to twins; she named the girl Katara and the boy Karo. In all too brief a time, the Fire Nation and Zhao returned. When he found out your mother had twins, he demanded to take his son so he could raise him as his own. He wished to raise him as a powerful warrior and so he left with baby Karo." Aang put his arm around Katara as she stared at Karo.

Katara could now see it. She felt an epiphany: she felt like someone who having stared at a strange ancient text found she could suddenly make sense of it. Karo had green eyes – she had blue, Zhao had amber. She understood why she always felt a deep attachment to Karo. She had thought her affection for him because he was a kind soul but it went beyond that. She could see much of her mother in his face and much of Sokka's. She found it easier to understand why Lady Zhao took such a kind attitude toward her – her stepdaughter.

Karo didn't know what to think. He felt relief and yet felt deeply guilty for having sprung into the world out of such an act of cruel evil. Karo wondered if his mother's act of kindness in raising him in Ba Sing Se somehow made the Universe more balanced.

"You all must insure Admiral Zhao sees justice," Aang stood back from the group. "You have a duty to each other and to me to find all the evidence of his past crimes and see to it he does serve time."

"What about you?" Karo asked Aang.

"I will play my role when the time comes. Justice, real justice must be done if my actions are to have any meaning! I did not witness all his treachery and so we must uncover it." Aang spoke commandingly. "I will take Admiral Zhao's bending if and only if he has been proven guilty beyond any doubt for his crimes."

"Can we go home now?" Azula asked, "I have a bed and a pillow yearning to be used."

Aang sniggered – which reminded Karo of the old and playful Aang, "You will sleep - I will send you home on Appa," he said kindly. "I know I have caused you much inconvenience but I have much to do and I have a newly born daughter to raise."

* * *

"You know," Karo followed Azula between the rows of a long abandoned olive grove, "when we find the safe, how do you plan to get it open?"

Azula shrugged, "we will see."

"How will you get the car back out of the ditch you drove it into?"

Azula shrugged, "that was no ditch, a creek took out the bridge."

"You sure I don't have a head injury?"

Azula shrugged, "not yet."

"You usually don't help the Avatar," Karo said, "you two don't even get along so why start now?"

"I may not get along with the Avatar but your father I like even less." Azula kicked a twig out of her path. Karo knew Azula's talent for understating her feelings on most topics and so decided accept her answer.

"If I asked you why we are wearing helmets with spikes on top of them would I regret it?" Karo followed Azula into the now abandoned cement and stone foundations of what had once been the Zhao family estate.

Azula let a tree twig swing back and Karo took a blow to the spike that topped his helmet. She answered Karo slowly as if trying to soften the answer, "you would. Can we call it the hunt for truth and justice?"

Karo forgot what sarcastic remark he wanted to make because he had enough trouble keeping his balance on the stumps and rubble that littered the site of the old estate house. "The jungle has taken no time in reclaiming this place," Karo jumped from one large concrete block to another and wondered if he would encounter a large snake or worse, and contemplated his place in the food chain.

Azula pointed and grabbed Karo's shoulder, "there it is!"

"A bank safe?" Karo looked at the two meter tall steel box that had rusted in the weather, had vines growing all over it and struck him as quite likely the most ordinary object except that it sat on an off angle on a block of concrete. "Shouldn't we find a squashed coyote here about?"

"The demolition crew found it but couldn't get a crane up here to move it and so left it here," Azula explained as she pushed Karo forward. "As far as I know, the safe belonged to your father and could contain important parts of your family history, cash and maybe evidence that could lock him up for good."

Karo looked at the safe which had foot thick walls and asked the obvious question, "how do we open it? Do you know the combination?" The combination dial still moved freely but in Karo's mind, that was of little use without a clue as to which on of the sixty trillion combinations opened the safe. "I have no experience with safes."

"Fire bending prowess will get this open."

"I still don't why I have to wear a spiked helmet." Karo griped because he found the helmet heavy and hot, and decided to make his point, "do you enjoy looking like infantry? Do the coconut trees here abouts have plans to drop their nuts on us?"

Azula began gesturing in a delicate dance and Karo used his gift for self preservation as the stubble on his forearms began to follow the invisible force lines of the electrical field Azula had begun to generate. The art of using lightning involved unbalancing the Universe by stripping electrons off the outer shell of atoms which displeased the atoms and annoyed the electrons. Karo knew what followed next – a loud explosion and rubble fell down over his head as a fire ball rose out of the old basement and the trees smoked. Azula flew back and Karo caught an odd expression of surprise on her face as she slid up against him and her helmet spike missed his head by inches.

"Crap," Azula rubbed her eyes and saw the safe largely unscathed.

"Did the physics people suddenly change the value of h bar!" Karo shouted over the ring in his ears as leaves and branches drifted down around him. "They decided to fiddle with the wave function of the electron?"

"Damn physics people," Azula brushed her clothes off and tightened her helmet. "Before I took all those physics courses, I found using lightning so intuitive. Either that or it must be my time of the month – why are you staring at me?"

Karo sighed, "can I get up?"

* * *

"Why do I have the same spiked helmet as yesterday and what is the stuff in the bottle resting in the bucket of dry ice?" Karo asked Azula as they struggled over the concrete boulders that formed the remains of the old Zhao palace.

"Nitroglycerine." Azula answered back calmly, "no safe will defy me."

Karo stood on top of a large concrete block looking somewhat aghast, "I heard stories that during the War; the Fire Nation used prisoners to handle this stuff and many of those prisoners were never heard from again. Do you mean to tell me I have had a dangerously unstable explosive? No! Wait!" Karo raised his hand. "How did you get hold of a dangerously unstable explosive!"

"A construction site might have an inventory problem and their guard dog enjoyed the meat I gave it." Azula said calmly then explained the dry ice, "you can buy dry ice from a fish market if you ask nicely."

"Frozen carbon dioxide doesn't really disturb me," Karo remained perfectly still, "but when I die and the funeral home has to use a scarecrow to stand in my place because no one can find my remains; I will come back and haunt you."

Azula walked toward Karo and dragged him by the collar, "you done? I learned how to handle high explosives and you are in no danger unless the dry ice evaporates."

"With the fog coming out of the bucket, I felt like dancing and singing old showtunes."

"Don't!" Azula helped Karo down and guided him toward the burned and rusty safe. "One catchy tune and a dance move, a broken jar of nitroglycerine and you will wind up meeting God. You are in no danger unless the dry ice evaporates, you knock the bottle or something random happens."

Karo put down the bucket very gently as Azula dug a hole under the safe with a stick. "You don't believe in God."

"I didn't bring gloves either," Azula looked into the fog filled bucket, "and that kind of throws a wrench into an otherwise fine plan."

Karo reached into the bucket, felt the cryogenic pain and yelped.

"Yet another reason not to have your children," Azula said. She slowly tipped the bucket of dry ice over with her foot and then slowly moved the bucket away. "What in the name _dry ice_ hinted that it would be not _cold_ or _dry_!" Azula took her stick and carefully slid the glass jar of explosive liquid into the hole. "You need gloves to protect your hands from the cold – dry ice is well – cold. Katara's home igloo is a subtropical paradise compared to dry ice."

"Ow!" Karo felt Azula pull on his shoulder.

They both retreated to the relative lack of safety provided by a piece of concrete and a chunk of corrugated steel about fifty meters away. Karo could guess the next move and wondered if he should rehearse what to say when he met God. Azula stood up from behind the flimsy wall of steel and aimed a fire bolt at the hole she had made under the safe.

Azula flew back from the shock-wave as if pushed back by a linebacker at ballistic velocity. She had anticipated the explosion but vastly underestimated the scale of the blast and she flew back, pinned Karo against a rock and he let out a high pitched grunt. A large rock flew past her head and she became somewhat concerned because she had lost track of the huge safe. Karo thought for a moment that he would meet God as his wire framed glasses flew back off his head and Azula bowled him over. He decided to ask God whether or not he could come back as a boring bank employee.

The safe crashed to the ground an arms length from where they had sought refuge and landed with a dull thud on its door. Pieces of burning paper fell down all over the old estate while coins of every denomination rained down and pelted down on the ground like currency based hail. Karo figured out the reason for the spiked Fire Nation helmets.

Azula rolled off Karo and decided to lay flat until she had regained her sense of balance. She let out a long sigh and then asked Karo, "are you still alive?"

"We nearly had an eight ton safe land on us," Karo said quietly but with a tremor in his voice, "and as a physicist you are going to tell me that you planned and executed this plan perfectly because you understand the laws governing explosions."

"Sure," Azula spit out a gold coin into her hand.

Both Karo and Azula sustained no injuries although the world looked fuzzy to Karo because he had no glasses. The explosion had made a three meter crater in the ground and scattered a huge amount of dirt, rocks and concrete rubble in an ejecta blanket. Azula brushed her clothes off as she inspected the site and the smoking trees all around her and wore a look of satisfaction.

Karo sat up on his arms and coughed out a cloud of fine dust, "it looks like a meteor landed – the dinosaurs won't be back."

"Let's look around," Azula put her hands on her hips. "You know a meteor didn't kill off the dinosaurs – they went extinct because they smoked to much – everyone knows this."

Karo stood in the middle of the debris field and examined a singed piece of paper. Luckily for both Azula and Karo, explosions did little damage to the contents of the safe although the surroundings had seen far better days and several monkeys, a herd of parrots and something scaly had their innards pulped.

"You never told me your middle name." Karo said as he continued the great gold coin hunt. "I wonder what my biological mother gave me as a middle name? Katara told me very little about her because she finds it difficult to speak of her."

Azula had a map that had the details of the Northern Water Tribe homeland. She replied to Karo in a half interested tone, "that's nice – my parents didn't give me a middle name." She tucked one map under her arm and opened another. "Why would your father have a safe if not to hide ultra secret military documents? Nothing I see in these maps have any military importance. You could have bought these maps in any bookstore in any Earth Kingdom City for a few silver."

Katara felt her way down the jagged landscape until she stood next to Karo and a twitching red feathered parrot. "I heard the explosion and saw the cloud of dust and rushed up here in case something happened to you guys! Why are all these red birds dead?"

"I prefer to use the word '_sudden metabolic deficit_' rather than dead," Azula trudged over to Katara. "Don't tell anyone about them. We'd probably have to pay a fine."

Katara looked at Azula and simply shook her head: Azula had all the hallmarks of a sociopath and yet she did have her good side. 'Too bad,' Katara thought, 'that all her talents involve destruction.' Katara looked at the spiked helmet Azula wore and asked, "what is with the spiked helmets?"

Azula held out the map and answered Katara at the same time, "you see all the birds dropping dead around here? A parrot's beak can crack nuts – safety first."

"Like hell!" Karo picked up the remains of an ornate bronze box with a broken lock and silver coins spilled out of it. "When I filled out a life insurance application and wrote in Azula as my common law wife, the life insurance company wrote back and told me – _hell no! not unless you have more gold than all Ba Sing Se! We have to consider our shareholders._"

Katara held the map up to the light and examined it as the sunlight shone through it, "you have seen nautical charts?"

"Yes." Azula answered. "Why do you ask?"

"When you don't want to make marks on expensive charts, you use a sharp pencil and tracing paper and you write on the tracing paper so as not to mark up the charts. This lets you use them over. " Katara scrutinized the map and could not hide her displeasure, "this map of the Southern Water Tribe lands show a nasty little raid planned on our village." Katara shoved the map back in Azula's arms.

"The Fire Nation seemed to like visiting that village quite..." Azula looked at the map and held it up to the light. "we have a small bit of evidence."

Azula could have made the Buddha utter obscenities and Katara turned on Azula and growled, "Look at the date on the map – my mother died a few days after that." Katara found all of the feelings welling up inside her but her resentment of the Fire Nation had lost its edge for Karo was her brother and Lady Zhao had come to treat her like a daughter. In spite of this, Katara saw all the arrogance and lack of empathy she had come to hate in the Fire Nation in Azula. She had tried to remind herself Azula had no social skills but even that excuse had its limits.

Karo dropped the broken chest and stuttered, "you never did explain why - I mean," he fidgeted and sweated. "Why the Fire Nation murdered our mother. It never made sense to me but nothing about the War ever made sense."

Katara turned to Karo and gritted her teeth as Karo backed up. "My mother died to hide my identity to protect me. The Fire Nation raided the Southern Water Tribe and took all the water benders off to prison to rot and my mom feared that fate for me."

Karo held up a coin he had found in the broken chest, "Water Tribe money?"

Katara grabbed Karo's hand so hard it hurt. "You're right – he was a thief too."

Azula paced the ground thinking to herself. After a moment, she spoke as if she were a detective and wagged her finger, "we have evidence Zhao returned maybe ten years after the first raid and knew he had a daughter. I still don't understand how he knew of a water bender in your village? He would have taken both children had he known."

"Who ratted on the Water Tribe?" Katara gripped Azula's collar, "all loyal – our village had no traitors!"

"Somehow the information leaked out." Azula grabbed Katara's hands and blushed briefly then pushed her hands down.

"He must have suspected," Karo said sadly, "he carried the trait for fire bending and I am a fire bender."

Azula stood back from Katara, "he could have suspected the presence of a fire bender, or a water bender." Azula straightened up her collar, "he knew he had fathered twins and the common wisdom holds that both twins would have the same bending prowess – fire or water. Even if true, only identical twins would share such a trait; you two are fraternal twins but Zhao didn't know this."

Katara stood silently as she digested these speculations, "you mean to say Zhao was behind the murder of my mother?"

Azula said nothing: she wanted more facts. "He would have lost respect among his peers if they found out about his water tribe family." Azula chose her words carefully to avoid a bitch slap. "He had a reason to kill you and your mother and could use the pretext of the presence of another powerful water bender in your village to kill both you and your mother. We know he has no problems with murder – Karo nearly died twice."

Karo held the Water Tribe coin to the Sun – a beautiful, silver, heavy coin with no stamping. Unlike modern coins, these looked hammered into shape rather than stamped; had crude markings and unlike silver, the coin had not tarnished. Karo realized the coin contained platinum – a metal of greater value than even gold. Karo watched his breath condense on the coin, "we have evidence he _did_ plunder the village and he did it around the time of my birth."

"How do you know!" Katara sneered.

"Look!" Karo held out the coin. "I _know_ money," Karo said confidently. "This is a platinum coin – made of a metal as valuable as gold with the same weight. The Water Tribes minted them during the War since they had no gold supplies. These came from the Southern Water Tribe after they lost full contact with the Northern Water Tribe. They melted the coins into these blanks but had no metal stamping machinery to mint them so they used a print to make the print. These coins have dates from before my birth – some date a generation before my time. None have dates later than my birth! Not much but we have a crude timeline!"

"I will kill this man!" Katara said almost hysterically and grabbed Karo by the collar. "Where can I find him?"

"I don't know...he's a dangerous man so maybe the maximum security prison at Murasaki Bay?" Karo could see the hate welling up in Katara's eyes and this scared him. He could feel her hands grow cold and press into his chest and feared what she might do. He gasped with relief when Azula pushed between both of them.

"Kill Admiral Zhao if you must." Azula sounded calm, "but Karo did nothing to your family."

Karo sat on a rock with his own torments. Katara wandered around the site and she did what she did best – organize what she found. She said nothing at all as she sank in her own emotions. She had a pile of coins from the Water Tribe and had found many singed documents – some utterly useless, others showing maps and injunctions to the navy.

"Sackcloth and ashes?" Azula sat on the rock next to him.

Karo had a sadness in his voice that struck Azula as heartbreaking, "I had dreams where I heard the screams of the tormented, the victims. I fear I will go mad someday from the voices of all those people our nation tortured or killed."

"I thought I would drive you mad," Azula placed her arm on Karo's shoulder. "You won't go mad."

"You sound confident."

Azula looked up a a Water Tribe coin, "will you give this money back?"

"Of course," Karo leaned against Azula, "I want to earn my money by being of benefit not through theft. The Southern Water Tribe has every right to have it all returned."

"Do you sleep well?" Azula asked like a nurse.

Karo thought for a few moments as he watched Katara work. "I have still not learned to sleep without the nightmares."

"I went mad because I had no conscience about anything I did or said. I slept calmly and peacefully. If you were truly mad then you would sleep in peace and wake up without regrets." Azula assured her friend. "You have a strong moral compass – this isn't a flaw. You have a sense of right and wrong, good and bad. In the Fire Nation, your strong conscience would have you land in prison and worse. At least you can help fix some of the injustices of the War since you escaped to Ba Sing Se."

"Do you have a conscience now?" Karo asked quietly.

"I don't know." Azula laughed quietly, "but I can ask myself – what would Karo Zhao do? I don't know if sociopaths ever recover."

Karo pulled his arms around his knees, "you are a handful and you don't think of how your actions could affect others. You did nearly blow both of us up on more than one occasion. I love you in spite of all this because at least you think in a novel way."

"Don't get maudlin," Azula hugged Karo.

Katara had succeeded in making much of the mess by the evening although without an Earth Bender, none of the trio could set the safe right. It had landed on the door and weighed too much to lift without a crane. If it contained papers, water and fire bending would destroy them. Katara planned to carry the documents home and sort thought them carefully. Karo held the money in a small bag and Azula had a collection of maps. They began to tramp toward the car Azula had parked on a decent patch of road. Katara knew they had to make several trips and she still felt rage she could not direct at any one person.

"Zuko once said that Fire Lord Ozai told him, you were born lucky, while he was lucky to be born." Katara told Azula as a kind of a barb to strike up an argument.

Azula patted Karo's shoulder and replied to Katara in an oddly dark but to Katara a rather poetic manner. "My father is dead and Zuko is Fire Lord," Azula said as she climbed down to where she had parked the car. "My father was an incompetent military leader and a mindless, angry cruel man."

"You reject what he taught you?" Katara placed a heavy load of singed documents on the hood of the car.

Azula unlocked the driver side door and spoke after a sigh and a look of desperate sadness crossed her eyes. "In life there are only two good things: one is to never have been born and the second is to die as soon as possible. My father achieved the latter."

* * *

A week later, Karo found something he truly loved sitting in the living room of the rented house after a day of unloading the cracked safe of the last old papers and plunder. The entire week had depressed both Karo and Katara and Azula found both of them miserable company. Azula knew she could find a way to cheer Karo up with money or shiny stuff. Katara proved more difficult since Katara found children comforting while Azula scared them. Katara, Azula and Karo had levered up the safe with a car jack, rocks and more rocks. Katara wanted to find evidence of more of Admiral Zhao's crimes, Azula wanted more clues to the events of the War: she hated mysteries. Karo wanted to go home and lay on the couch and listen to playoff hockey on Earth Kingdom radio.

"My sofa – _Big Red_?" Karo stood in front of the old sofa. "My real and not made of _tissue paper cushions by a cheap furniture store_ sofa?" Karo flopped on it and lay on his side, "my _baby soft and fits me like a glove and has both our ass grooves_ sofa has come home!"

"Your mom had it shipped over because she hated the couch we bought, "Azula explained, "and she said something about it looking like some kind of ugly ice sculpture and as comfortable as a Fire Nation interrogation chair so she had it shipped here. I put the radio on a side table so you could relax and listen to hockey games from the Earth Kingdom." Azula put Karo's feet on her lap and tossed the remains of their archeological expedition into the Zhao safe on the coffee table, "Katara was just behind me..."

Katara entered the house with a bundle of papers and looked at Karo and Azula. "That is..._Big Red? It_ came home?" Katara placed the bag of papers she had onto the coffee table.

"Sofas have a curious ability to find their way back to their owners." Azula said.

Katara crossed her arms, "I hate that thing: it looks so Fire Nation and puffy."

Azula tipped out Katara's bag, lifted up Karo's legs, sat down on the couch and began ruminating, "your dad was a rather odd person." She picked up a stack of messenger hawk messages held together with a string, "because Fire Nation military protocol required the destruction of such messages. He disobeyed orders by not destroying these." Azula tossed the messages back on the coffee table and shrugged, "a very odd action for such a consummate soldier to take."

Undisciplined thug!" Karo said in an angry voice but for some reason he picked up the stack of messages and undid the string. He knew little about Fire Nation communications and he could not read the messages. They came in varieties of different handwriting which meant a different person had sent them but instead of characters as he had expected he saw strings of numbers.

"Did anyone find a red book about this thick?" Azula held her fingers apart about a centimeter.

Karo shook his head and Katara sorted through the accumulated pile of paper on the coffee table then shook her head.

Azula scratched Karo's legs as she thought. "Fire Nation messages used a code where a group of numbers stood for a character –123 might mean 'red' for example. To know which numbers stood for what character; you needed a code book. This kept the enemy from reading the message if they trapped a messenger hawk." Azula drummed her fingers on the arm of the sofa, "and every few months they changed the code."

Each message looked about the size of a dollar bill and Karo tied them back together with the string and tossed them on the pile in frustration.

"I'll get Zuko on the phone," Azula lifted up Karo's legs and placed them back on his couch. "The Fire Nation military never threw anything out so the code books must exist somewhere. We published thousands of copies and distributed them everywhere so somewhere we can find them."

* * *

"And he shoots...and it bounces off the crossbar! Ba Sing Se loses another powerplay opportunity." Azula retained a certain respect for Karo's ability to follow a hockey game on the radio, carried by a radio signal so weak that she doubted if even a single photon of radio wave energy landed on the antenna. The signal kept breaking into static at random intervals due to the interference of someone three kilometers away turning on a light. She woke up to find Karo in his night gown laying on the couch with his arms behind his head listening to a hockey game through a veil of static.

"We suck!" Karo said confidently. "The Ba Sing Se Bruins only made the playoffs through a fluke. The Omashu Saber Tooth Moose Lions will have the seven game series in four games straight. We never even came close to tying up any of those games – you might think you hear static but that is the sound of hockey suckage. Of course the other Ba Sing Se team sucked worse. Do you know that the Fire Nation fielded a team this year?"

Azula had to work for a moment to translate what Karo had just said and she replied with a simple, "no."

"Yep!" Karo spoke while a commercial for soap played, "the Fire Capitol Flames – an expansion team which of course also sucked and got demolished during the regular season."

A loud knock came at the door. Mitsumi had fallen asleep at Karo's feet but jumped up in the hopes he might meet a new human with food.

Azula answered the door to find a rather official looking man holding a box. "Greetings," he bowed deferentially. "I am a messenger from Fire Lord Zuko and I have brought the old code books as you requested." He held out a cardboard box about the size of a breadbox.

Azula accepted the box and bowed, then she looked at the messenger, "tell Zuko - I don't tip." She slammed the door and put the cardboard box on the coffee table as Mitsumi sniffed it in hope of finding food.

Karo complained about his team being behind by seven to nothing and having only three minutes left in the period. Azula decided to ignore him and began unpacking the contents of the box. She placed the old, red lizard skin bound books on the table. They were indeed the code books of the Fire Nation military and each one had a gold Fire Nation insignia on the front cover, the words _Fire Nation Military Codebook – Treason Means Death_ and a date.

Decoding the messages amounted to little more than doing the sums once Azula, Katara and Karo had found the proper codebook. They sat on the living room floor in a circle and wrote down the contents of each message in proper Chinese. The use of such simple number codes would scramble the efforts of an apathetic enemy but Azula knew the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe could and did read Fire Nation codes. Only hubris convinced those in command that sending paper messages encoded with numbers on the backs of birds with brains the size of peanuts amounted to a secure communication system. Azula found she could read the messages from a certain codebook without looking things up because she had a head for remembering patterns of numbers and her knowledge of Chinese filled in the gaps with little effort.

This did not imply the messages gave up any useful information. Much was trivial – that the Admiral had requested a shipment of dry ramen hardly counted as a state secret. Azula noted with some amusement that a certain Lieutenant Kije (pronounced Keezhay) had received orders from Admiral Zhao.

Azula knew of Lieutenant Kije as a military hoax set up by a Fire Nation division to improve their standing in the strange hierarchy of the army. He gained a reputation as a hero, great commander, got promoted to General and conquered Omashu. King Bumi had given up without a fight but the reports sent back to the Fire Nation spoke of a great battle and of the final victory of General Kije. Mai's father had plans to decorate him with the _Gold Medal of the Twin Dragons_ – the highest honor in all the Fire Nation. Once the division realized their hoax would be found out, Kije died after falling off the walls surrounding Omashu and being devoured by a platypus bear. The story struck Azula as fishier than a barrel of herring but as long as the army did their job she had no time to investigate fish stories.

"This note is a polite request from Zhao to Kije to send him men from his division to serve in the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe," Karo read out loud. "Kije replied: I can spare no men as we have only just taken the city and must pacify the inhabitants."

Katara looked at one of the messages and turned white and began to cry because she had the order that sent Zhao to her village.

A day later and Katara had curled up on the couch and refused all offers of comfort from her friends. Not to say those offering were any good at comforting a lonely Water Tribe woman. Azula had tried her best to muck up the kitchen by blowing one of the red ceramic teapots to Kingdom Come. She had not intended to blow a teapot up but she succeeded just as Karo came in for a morning cup of tea. Karo told Katara that he had turned out _mostly normal_ and she would as well. Katara told Karo that he was in no way normal – a truth Karo could not deny since he had to admit he loved a girl who blew up a teapot. Katara hadn't moved off the couch since the morning and both Karo and Azula failed to move her in spite of having the afternoon run of god awful soap operas turned up to high volume on the radio.

Azula lifted up Katara's legs and sat on the couch, "you have very little stubble for a girl?"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"You haven't moved off this couch in a day," Azula said, "and you always hated this couch."

"You are my friend and I love you but you can't imagine how hard it is to find out my father was a mass murdering psychopath." Katara said sadly, "let's face facts, you can't imagine feeling at all."

The door exploded into the house before Azula could work out a reply.

"Toph?"

Karo rushed into the living room from the kitchen, "what the hell!" He held his hands to his hair, "do we have any desire to reclaim the damage deposit on this place? Let me – oof!"

Toph gave Karo a huge hug, "hey pretty boy! I missed you while I was on the road!"

Azula patted Katara's legs. "This girl has the nicest skin of any of the mammals I have met."

"On tour with who or what?" Karo ignored Azula's comments.

"The professional Earth Kingdom Wrestling League," Toph could tell that Azula found great joy in the presence of Katara.

"See!" Azula exclaimed, "you and your brother have the nicest skin – he has back acne and hair in his ears and his pubes..."

"Oh for crying out loud!" Karo yelled in frustration.

Katara stood up and hugged Toph, "as you can guess – a few things have changed. I am the daughter of Admiral Zhao."

"I thought Karo was his," Toph pointed up at Karo, "daughter."

"We're twins."

"You have to see them naked," Azula stretched out on the couch and kicked her feet, "same back hair, same body and same nipples."

"Have you no boundaries?" Karo asked as he lifted the door up to inspect the hinges and voiced his frustration. "Well – no you don't."

"You decided to take your vacation with _us_!." Azula lay back with her hands behind her head,

"Welcome to Komatsu – Toph Bei Fong." Karo bowed as Katara patted his shoulder.

"I had a hard six months on the road. I visited my parents nad decided to visit you guys because you liven on a tropical island that has never seen snow." Toph plopped herself on the couch, "and I wondered if Azula and Karo had made plans for the big wedding."

Karo grunted as he tried to rehang to door on its hinges, "Uh – oof – well we have had other things to do and the wedding plans have been put on the back burner for now." Karo had forgotten that he had a crossbow bolt through his left shoulder and it decided to give up the ghost and so the heavy door fell on top of Karo. "Help!"

Toph stomped to his aid and she swiftly had the heavy wood door sitting on its hinges. Azula stole the couch back. "What happened to you – pretty boy?"

"One of the reasons for delaying the marriage," Karo slowly got up as Toph held him steady. "My father decided to have a second crack at killing me and sent a crossbow bolt through my shoulder and there were complications and I nearly died." Karo cleaned off his glasses and pushed them up his nose. "Katara healed much of the damage but I have a metal pin holding it all together. In another episode, the Avatar revealed that Katara and I are twins."

"Karo and I share the same father," Katara said sadly, "but not the kind and strong Hakoda but the awful and evil Admiral Zhao."

Toph had grown up isolated but she did have some social skills and decided from the tone of Katara's voice to leave the matter alone. She had long thought Karo a kind of closet Water Tribesman - he had that streak of family loyalty. She had not taken this seriously because Karo did not like nature and loved modern conveniences – he had made it clear he hated any form of camping.

Azula had no trouble accepting the idea that Katara and Karo were twins. This explained why she found both of them attractive and she could see much of Katara in Karo. She shifted back and forth on the couch trying to get comfortable and she felt the need to voice her complaint, "you are my best girl and I love you but you have totally worn my ass groove out of this couch...see Karo and I spent years getting this couch to fit us and – not complaining – you have changed the feel of this couch."

For the first time in over a day, Katara smiled. Azula, for all her faults was often hilarious and her blunt nature and nerd like candor did much to make Katara feel better.

* * *

The Pharos was a lighthouse that sat on the granite hill a the end of a slender peninsula that marked the entrance to Komatsu Harbor. It had functioned for two hundred years and become the landmark that distinguished the city. The locals had lovingly restored the old lighthouse and painted it white and red then restored it to its former majesty after the War. It looked like a giant concrete candy cane shining into the evening sunlight. They built a park with a wide spiraling path around the lighthouse, strange strange stairwells through the trees and planted rare and beautiful flowers.

Katara and Toph walked along the wide stone pathways and enjoyed the rhododendrons that covered the hill. Karo thought the park would cheer up Katara and she did find her mood lightening. Komatu had a beautiful harbor and a natural setting unrivaled in all the Fire Nation. Unlike the Fire Nation; these people had a certain love of nature and a relaxed and easy going attitude. Katara watched children with ice cream cones rushing after parents. An elderly couple read the plaques that told of important sights around the rock the lighthouse rested upon.

Toph could hear the lighthouse and the gears that drove the huge arc lamps at the very top. The wide main path that spiraled to the top was carved out of the living rock of the island and Toph could 'see' a good deal. She could feel the footfalls of a great many people enjoying a walk with dogs, children or by themselves. She could hear an unfortunate skateboarder slide off the board and collide with the heavy steel tubing that formed the railing of the paths that spiraled up the rock. The skateboarder sustained no injury and immediately decided to make use of a narrow set of steps carved out of the living rock as a means of getting to the bottom of the mountain.

"What the..." Karo had a preoccupation with the flowers and nearly had a skateboarder run over him as he passed a set of stairs.

Azula enjoyed the sight of a teenage boy as he rolled across the main path and hit the post that had a sign that read 'No Skateboarding on Park Grounds'. The teenager had wrapped himself around the pole and yet for all the pain, had no problem rolling off down the broad path past Katara and Toph.

"No pain no brain?" Azula said to Karo as he examined a rhododendron.

"Indeed." Karo said.

"I see something odd." Toph said to Katara as they walked up to Karo and Azula. "Something under the water to the North."

"That's open ocean." Azula said dismissively. The open sea to the North had become a busy seaway and to any marine mammals and Toph was probably full of noise. "Lots of things make noise in the open ocean."

"But this is _under_ water and sounds like it has a motor." Toph said insistently.

"How is _that _possible?" Karo asked, "underwater ships don't exist."

"Not entirely true," Azula reminded Karo. "On the Day of Black Sun, the Water Tribe attacked the Fire Nation capitol using submarines. They used water bending to propel them through the water though."

"I hear a motor but its really quiet." Toph stomped her feet, "and its getting fainter as if this is going past the city heading up the coast."

The group began walking slowly along the path toward the top of the hill.

"I can barely hear it now." Toph said.

"How do you its underwater?" Azula asked skeptically. "I see half a dozen large ships and countless smaller boats and so maybe your feet are playing tricks on you?"

"It's gone," Toph said sadly and then added, "I'm telling you it was underwater."


End file.
